


Infected by Daylight

by notthebasement



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Multi, aaaaaaaa, and i ended up investigating a lot about zombies and had to make my own up, but it ended up having a plot and more characters and ships, this was gonna be just kingfield without plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-02 13:07:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13318767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notthebasement/pseuds/notthebasement
Summary: 'Zombie' AU for Dead by Daylight >> Dwight, Quentin and Claudette go to the Arcade to spend the first day of their Christmas holidays, where they find David and they spend some time together until a performer gets a bit over the top with her acting.Turns out that it wasn't acting, but something worse, and she wasn't the only one suffering from it.





	1. The Arcade

**Author's Note:**

> It's the first time I write a fan fiction and my first language isn't English, so I hope I did good enough for you to have fun reading this as much as I had fun writing it! I was going to draw art to show as the story went on, but I decided to allow it to be text and draw random scenes for Tumblr instead.
> 
> Also, I didn't make David's accent too exaggerated because it would be a pain in the ass to do it and to read it, specially if I wasn't capable of doing it properly!
> 
> A special thank you to calmspirited for helping me both as an inspiration to try to keep on writing and for telling me how to do things better and checking on it so i felt safe enough to post it!
> 
> Also a thank you to wolfiekittenz for checking out the first corrections with me to make the first part make sense!

 

> _[["...we think it might be a body lotion being sold at some chain store, but the severity of flesh-eating disease found in our patients makes it too hard for them to tell us the brand and store they got it from. The investigations are still happening as we speak, all skin care products are being recalled from the shelves until further notice to prevent this illness from spreading"]]_

 

_Ugh._ That was one of those moments when he was thankful for not spending much time taking care of himself with those products the commercials tried to sell everyone all day long.

Dwight was forced out of his thoughts when an old man, his boss, switched to the sports channel. He took a quick look around -the pizzeria was almost empty, as usual, and his boss was sitting right next to him. "Our clients don't come here to watch the news, Dwight". Dwight sighed and apologized, taking a quick look at the clock on his phone. Finally. His shift ended -and his vacations began! He'd been able to get them right at the best moment, at the end of the year.

He'd been looking forward to it for a while. Free from the job he hated, getting to spend the holidays with his friends, who had invited him to stay since he was usually alone. The perks of moving away from your family and being bad at socializing with other people. Thankfully one of them -Claudette- had been his friend since childhood and he was pretty sure their friendship wasn't going to end anytime soon. She was studying at college, wanting to be a nurse. She wanted to be able to help other people and save their lives since she'd finished her botany studies early. The good part of being a gifted person, it sometimes made Dwight feel somewhat jealous. She'd met someone else at her class, his name was Quentin.

Quentin was a Christian guy she was sharing a home with since they were studying the same thing at their college. The fact that he was Christian had always bugged him out, but thankfully Quentin was a decent guy that didn't hate on others for their life choices. In the end, the three of them had become close friends and always spent their days together.

Walking to the kitchen, he grabbed his backpack and put it on one of the countertops to check inside and make sure he had all he needed once more. His clothes, his underwear and his wallet along with unnecessary things like a deck of cards and a couple gifts he'd got for a few people. Grabbing his bright red work coat, he didn't care enough to change before getting out of the pizzeria and leaving on his rusty motorbike to meet his friends.

 

* * *

 

"...you have to lend me your notes again, Claudette"

"Really? Quentin... did you forget to take your medication again? We're studying medicine, you should know how imp--"

"I didn't forget, I was having trouble to sleep again. I needed some rest"

"Promise you'll tell your therapist about it". Claudette's worried stare could break even the strongest person... and she knew it.

"Okay, okay, I will", Quentin replied as he lifted his hands to shoulder height in defeat. "Promise"

Claudette smiled, leaning her back against her friend's front. Quentin knew what that meant during winter: 'please, it's cold, shelter me', and of course he wouldn't say no so with his hands in the pockets of his coat he engulfed her into it with a hug; which made her giggle and make herself comfortable in it. "Oh, there he is", she said as she watched Dwight approach them on his motorbike. It was impossible not to see him -red bike, red helmet and a big red coat. Dwight looked at them as he took his helmet off and grinned.

"I wish I had died on my way here". _Dwight and his greetings._ He wasn't the only culpable of such behaviour -Claudette was one to be around social websites a lot, too. "The fuck! Me too", she laughed, getting squished in Quentin's arms for such an answer to Dwight. Quentin wasn't one to talk like that and he used to take what they said seriously, but after spending some time with them he'd got to understand they were just joking in some weird way.

Now with Dwight off of his bike, Claudette kind of tackled Dwight into a hug; he put an arm around her and squeezed her close and used his other hand to greet Quentin with a fist bump. They then made their way into the other side of the road, going to the front door of the place they visited the most.

The Arcade.

What was there not to like about that place? Warm during winter, good aesthetics, great games, that old music everyone likes, nice people, a bar... and the fact that they all knew Dwight in there because he was at the top of every scoreboard in the games -PZB. Pizza boy. Most didn't even know his name, but Dwight usually went there after work without changing his clothes so it was pretty much a nickname everyone used for him (and that got them free drinks and food). _That_ was the best part.

As they walked inside and they took their coats off, people began greeting them and giving Dwight some strong pats on the back. Some of them always managed to make him almost trip by how strong they pat him, but it was all in good fun so there was no problem about it.

It was a pretty big place, actually the best Arcade in the city. There were large rooms with machines packed next to each other in a way that only the designated players and a couple more people could be around it without having space issues with the player next to them. The black carpeted floors had those typical patterns of random shapes or confetti, the walls were dark too and decorated with neon lights with words or simply plain, maybe with drawings of drinks or animals.

At the end of the room, away from the noisier games, there were some tables and a bar along with couches. There was also a big opening on one of the walls that lead to another large room with newer consoles, comfortable seats for all the players on each one.

They stayed in the main room and made their way to one of the arcade games, ready to take their usual turns on them. It was a simple game where the difficulty lied on both the game being so old it had bad controls and how one mistake could take one of your lives. Claudette went first, knowing she wouldn’t really reach the end of it.

“If only I was good at something useful instead of video games”, Dwight snorted. “Like, studying, so I could actually find a job to make a living”

“Alright Dwight, but you need the money to--”

“I know, I know!” He interrupted Claudette, gently pushing her towards Quentin, who pushed her back at him. Claudette just slapped Dwight’s arm, giving him a ‘don’t you dare’ look.

“At least you have a job, I can imagine myself without one even after I finish my studies because I refuse to work on retail again”. Quentin didn’t look amused as he finished talking, he’d had plenty of bad experiences there. Who hadn’t, in such a job?

“Consider streaming your games, Dwight. You’ve just said you’re good at them~”. Claudette loved to tease Dwight about it, specially because of that one Dwight had a little war against.

“ _If I see her again, I’m murdering her without honor. She’s going to have to change her nickname from ‘Shining Lion’ to Mufasa_ ”. Dwight sounded so frustrated about it that the other two couldn’t help but laugh.

“That means you’d have to defeat her without cheating!”, Quentin hummed.

“She was claiming I did, but you were there! I wasn’t!” Dwight sighed, leaning against the machine without blocking Claudette’s view. “She can’t take it whenever I defeat her”

They continued to talk about her, Quentin patting Dwight’s back and keeping his arm around his shoulders to lean against him and stand comfortably until it was his turn. As expected, he was the one that lasted the least, followed by Dwight that almost got to complete it.

“I bet she wouldn’t be able to survive at all in these games!” he made his last retort about the chinese streamer as they moved away to check what was around.

Even if they always did the same in there it was just as fun, they had their own little competitions and different ways to play the games so they wouldn’t get bored and along with catching up on their days it was impossible to do so.

They moved from game to game, walking around the place through the people and watching them trying the games out too until they reached the couches area to sit down. A few hours had gone by, they were a bit tired so they decided to find a seat. Somehow, they managed to find an empty couch and armchair quite easily so they quickly took them before anyone else could.

Claudette was the first one to sit down on the couch, looking at Quentin before he sat down and batting her eyelashes at him. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. _Quentiiiin babe, cutie, sunshine, light of my life, please get me some food~_ ”. She had this habit where she complimented people in ridiculous ways whenever she wanted something.

Quentin just sighed, frowning and shaking his head but not being able to help smiling. “Okay, okay! A hamburger, right?”

“Mhm, and guess who doesn’t have to drive tonight~” she grinned.

“A hamburger… and a beer. Which will be more than one in the end”, he snorted as Claudette nodded with a big smile. “A hot dog and a coke for you, as usual?”

“You know it!”

Quentin left to order the food and drinks, Dwight taking a sit at the armchair so Quentin could sit on the other spot next to Claudette. For a while, they talked about her classes and his job while they waited for Quentin to be back… but she suddenly leaned her weight on the arm of the couch to stare at him. She didn’t say anything for a while, just smiling.

“ **No** ”. Dwight narrowed his eyes at her.

“ _Yes~_ ”

“I didn’t even see him yet!”

“ _You have his number, though_ ”. Claudette poked his arm, making Dwight gently slap her hand away.

“I’m not texting him, I don’t want to look clingy”

“You’d look clingy if you even tried to talk to him, but you just sit there and wait for him to approach!”

“ _Mmmmmssshush_ ”, he whined, taking a quick look at his phone now that she’d mentioned it. “Woah”. Dwight looked at Claudette again with his eyes widened. “It’s beginning to get late! For how long are we staying?”

“We just got our free days, we can stay until it closes~ I mean, since it’s late… he’s probably arrived~” she grinned, poking him more.

“You love to get on my nerves, don’t you?”

“And I know just how to do it!~” she hummed, looking at Quentin coming back with the food. “Finally! You were starving me!” she laughed as he put the food on the small table in front of them.

“Do you know how long the queue was? Why am I asking? Of course you do!” he snorted, rolling his eyes and sitting down next to them.

They both thanked Quentin for ordering the food for them, Dwight promising that he’d be the one doing so next time.

* * *

When they finished eating, it was 8pm. Still a couple hours to stay around. Being a Friday, the place was still crowded and loud, it was a time when some more people usually came in so it was great that the Arcade was an organized place with numbered queues for the games; that way they could just sit around on the couches and drink while they waited. Dwight seemed to be somewhat nervous, though.

"Is he here again?", Claudette asked as she took a quick look around. Her speech was somewhat slurred, her being the only one tipsy.

"Sitting at the same place again". Dwight always spotted him -the guy wearing that greyish Jacket sitting at the bar, staring at him from time to time.

"Are you j-just... are you just gonna sit there and let him stare at you for a couple hours again?". She was already giggling about the situation. If only she wasn't somewhat drunk, she wouldn't have blamed him -already going into a place full of people made her feel somewhat anxious, but since they all knew them there she felt safer. "And you", she poked Quentin's cheek. " _Stop laughing at me you ass_ ".

"But you sound so funny~", Quentin grinned. He loved to mess with her.

" _You're meeeean!_ ", she frowned as she leaned on his side.

Dwight just watched them talk, smiling now that he'd managed to forget about that guy because of their friends interaction -oh, shit. That guy. _David King_.

He took a quick look at the bar only to realize he wasn't sitting there anymore. Whew. If he was honest, he'd always had mixed feelings about him. He'd seen him getting into a few fights with other people in that place, but he was a _King_. It wasn't a good idea to mess with that family, they had a big business and if they wanted to destroy you they could in the blink of an eye; but he only got in fights with people that were looking for one so it wasn't that bad after all. People had learnt to respect him so there hadn't been any kind of incidents lately.

On the other hand, he also helped kick out the people that were messing up, keeping the Arcade a safer place. He'd seen him becoming friends with new people everytime, he was always laughing and drinking with others. As scary as he could look when he was angry, he was adorable at those moments and if there was something he couldn't lie about it was that tension he felt between them when they looked at each other. And not only that, but they had already played together a few times and hanged out, he really enjoyed his company.

**"'ey, pizza boy"**

There was someone leaning against the back of his armchair -he had already guessed who they were just by hearing that hoarse voice, making Dwight quickly turn around and to look at them. He'd forgotten to keep an eye on David so he'd lost track of his whereabouts and now he was right behind him, leaning his elbows on the back of his seat so he could be closer to his face. It was hard to talk any other way after all, that place was noisy as hell.

" _H-hey, David_ " he said, leaning away from him a bit to be able to look at his face. He rubbed the back of his neck, he always was a bit nervous when he was around. "How are you doing?"

Dwight's reaction made the other man laugh, it was always hilarious to him to see him acting like that whenever he was there. "Doin’ fine, doin’ fine… my number is next for 'ouse of the Dead 3 and last time we played together ye got a 'igher score than me. I want revenge~" he grinned.

Those smiles from him always made Dwight look away flustered, rubbing the back of his neck faster which made David laugh louder than before, leaning further into the chair.

"Yes, yes sure!" Dwight nodded, earning a soft punch on his shoulder so he'd stand up and follow him to the machine.

" _Jesus christ, Dwight_ ". Claudette hiccuped, grabbing her drink again. "If it wasn't obvious before...". Quentin just laughed, putting a hand over Claudette's to stop her from drinking more.

"You might not have to drive tonight but if you drink more you won't even be able to walk, you lightweight". It earned an annoyed look from her, but she wasn't drunk enough to fight him about it.

" _Okay, okay,_ I'll stop", she whined. "Let’s follow them. I want to have something to tease Dwight about when we're home~".

Quentin rolled his eyes, giving her an amused look and patting her back so she'd stand up. It took her a couple tries, eventually holding onto his forearm to be able to walk around without losing balance or losing sight of him. That place was crowded but they arrived in time to join the people that preferred to watch others playing rather than playing themselves.

Needless to say, David and Dwight [were doing a pretty good job so far](https://orig00.deviantart.net/ef30/f/2018/008/3/e/pretty_good_job_by_stashntb-dbzemdv.png), laughing at each other when they forgot to reload and making sure they wouldn't have to spend unnecessary coins by keeping the zombies away from each other's side of the screen.

"You wanted revenge, but if you keep on shooting at the screen randomly you'll never get a higher score than me~", Dwight grinned, getting a soft nudge on the side from David.

"Yer either very quiet or a proper ass'ole, Dwight". Both of them laughed, that kind of contagious laughter that had the shorter male lose some of his strength to stand so he had to lean against the other's side, David looking down at him for a second and grinning before paying attention to the game again. "Who's the one not doin' anythin' now?~"

"Oh, shush!"

Both of them concentrated on the game again after unnecessarily losing health, but that was no problem to them. They completed each section with little trouble, being skilled enough to even complete a couple of bosses without the need of feeding the machine extra credits. Whenever their scores showed up at the end of the levels they'd give each other playful glares, even a frustrated groan from David because of Dwight always having a higher rank than him. _'Stare less, play more'_ was what Dwight told him, making David widen his eyes and gently push him to play around.

It was all fun and games until Dwight realized that things were a bit too quiet, a real bad smell coming from the side, even having to close an eye when someone used the flash of a camera in his direction. What the hell?

Turning his head around to check what was going on he couldn't help but gasp loudly and jump back in a scare, accidentally pushing David and making him look too. David just widened his eyes at the sight -there was a woman just standing there, but no ordinary one.

Faded eyes staring into Dwight's, she seemed to have been hired to perform at the Arcade. Her skin seemed to be rotting all over her face and arms, and talking about arms one of them seemed to be an expensive prosthetic of a long, black claw with a glowing orange tip. A smaller version of these were plastered all over her 'missing' lips and she was missing chunks of hair. The only thing that didn't match with that costume were her clothes since they weren't broken or dirty at all. Was it supposed to be a _zombie_? A weird one? Some kind of _monster_ , or maybe a mix of them?

Whatever. That looked amazing.

"We got that on camera!~" Claudette laughed and waved her hand at Dwight, pointing at Quentin. They had seen her arriving first and hadn't said anything to him just to record his reaction.

Dwight stuck his tongue out at them, quickly checking the screen only to realize they had already died. That wasn't too much of a problem to them, they'd just do something else instead like greeting the performer so they moved away to leave space for the next ones in line.

"Oy, if ye 'ad scared me like that, I would 'ave lamped ye right on the face" David laughed, patting Dwight's back strongly which made him cough.

The woman didn't seem to have a reaction to it. Usually, after being spoken to or after scaring someone like that it was more of a normal thing to laugh or at least move a bit, try to make a sound, the usual thing of a performer trying to stay in role. But she didn't move at all, just staring into Dwight's eyes.

" _Okay, she's kind of creeping me out_ ", Dwight laughed a bit awkwardly and looked at his friends who were still recording and laughing before looking back at the woman, the people around them watching too and complimenting her.

Hold on -she was the one who smelled that bad and not only that, but she was drooling all over herself. It was thick, disgusting saliva. This wasn't right, they couldn't have hired someone like this. And if they had, he didn't want to have to do anything with her.

Taking a quick look back at David, he saw he didn't seem to be too pleased about it either, along with some of the crowd that was still staring. Something wasn't quite right about this, maybe she'd been there for a while already and she was feeling sick.

"Excuse me, uh... I really need an answer, are you---"

He couldn't finish the sentence before she screamed at him, loudly, guturally, it didn't even sound like a noise a human could make without hurting their throats; the strange teeth even moving outwards to reveal a second row of them, and without giving Dwight enough time to flinch she tackled him down to the floor, straddling his hips to attack him. The performer was trying her hardest to get her mouth close to Dwight's face as he tried to shelter himself with his arms, gaining some nasty scratches on them, then she lifted her appendage to slam it down on him but luckily enough for Dwight, David had finally reacted and he had kicked the woman away from him; making her fall on her side on the floor. Her strange spike-arm instead slid across Dwight's face instead of stabbing it, making his glasses fall and cutting part of his cheekbone and bridge of the nose skin along with it.

"The 'ell ye think yer doin' ye fuckin' cunt?!" David hissed, quickly kneeling down next to Dwight and handing him his glasses back. His protective instinct kicked in, always wanting to keep the ones he was friends with safe and close to make sure he could keep them like that for as long as possible. "Are ye okay?" Helping Dwight sit up by offering a hand to lean on as the smaller male nodded, he pulled him closer to himself and took a quick look at his bleeding forearms. Luckily for him, it wasn't on the dangerous side of them. He winced at the sight, hearing him letting out a small whine made him glare at the performer.

That was when they realized what was going on -the attacker was being held back by two people, still growling and squirming in a violent way, everyone being quiet on the surroundings just staring at the situation. Some people had ran away, others were recording on their phones while others weren't entirely sure about what they should do.

Dwight glanced at Claudette and Quentin -he was holding her back since she obviously wanted to rush to her friend to help him, but she was too drunk to get in such a strange situation. Both of them always took care of her as much as she took care of them, so with a knowing look they nodded at each other and Quentin took Claudette away from the scene as she whined loudly and kicked her legs. He'd take her home, Dwight would arrive later on his motorbike after patching himself up in some way.

After seeing them disappear in the crowd, the deliverer paid attention to his own problem again and that was when he realized how David was sheltering him, towering over him with his arms around him. It made him feel a bit nervous, but he took the chance to lean against him and look up. "...I think I should leave"

David sighed, standing up and pulling Dwight along with him, looking at the woman once more. She'd gone insane, she wouldn't stop trying to jump on Dwight... until she suddenly changed her objective, catching the two men out of guard and being able to latch onto one of them to bite his neck; the man screaming louder than they'd ever heard anyone screaming as he fell to the floor with her on top of him. Blood splattered everywhere, which made the other man panic and run away from that place. But it wasn't only him screaming in agony, it was more than one person followed with horrified screams of the people that were around.

They now knew that this was no performance at all. This woman was attacking people and harming them. The man on the floor lost blood quickly, his squirms to try to set himself free stopping and becoming just small twitches of his legs; the only noise he could make anymore were ones where he tried to breathe but he was choking on his own blood.

The attacker moved her head up towards the side of his head, trapping it with her teeth for a few seconds before standing back up. She seemed to have lost interest in his victim.

When she turned around to stare at Dwight and David, her face was dripping with blood of the other man. Their attention was fully on her, who was standing still, observing, at least until they realized someone else was behind her. It was the man she had attacked before. His eyes had lost their colour too and the wound on his neck was shining in orange and bright yellow shades.

That was when chaos broke loose.

Everyone began screaming, running away from that spot to try to get themselves safe. That was what made the two strange people have a reaction, the newly transformed one beginning to chase a random one to attack them. The other kept her eyes on Dwight, but as soon as she gave a step closer David pulled on Dwight’s arm and ran into the opposite direction of where people were heading. He was strong and could open his way through the crowd, but that thing would either be pushed back or it’d end up attacking someone else.

Being taller than most of the people in there, David managed to check what was going on by standing on his toes. That wasn't the only strange person in the room. There were a few of them inside, mostly at the entrance, attacking everyone on sight and sitting and biting the faces of the ones that fell down as they squirmed.

It was a bloodletting. The machines closer to the ones being attacked were full of blood, some people falling to the floor because of accidentally slipping with it. More and more kept on being grabbed and attacked, some managed to escape with wounds but the ones who got killed always stood up to find new victims as their wounds glowed.

Everyone was running towards the exit, which made David have to put his arms around Dwight again so he wouldn't be pushed around, and ran in the opposite direction to hide behind an arcade machine so they could find out what to do.

This was too much even for David, he’d been in fights before but in none of them there had been such a high level of violence. No one really attacked each other to kill after all, this situation being completely the opposite. It was the first time after so long that he was scared, and the only time he’d ever feared for his life. Not for his own life only, but he felt responsible for the safety of the man between his arms at that moment, who wasn’t having a good time at all.

Dwight had been in dangerous situations himself, he’d been robbed more than once when he was delivering food, but this was the first time he felt like he was facing a real threat or at least one that would actually try to end his life instead of just hurting him if he tried to defend his belongings. He hadn’t really been in big fights or in any situation where everyone at the same place was trying to leave as fast as possible, so he was somewhat lost and he didn’t know what to do at that very moment.

"O-Oh God, no, no!", Dwight whined as he looked around and covered his ears, but it wasn't enough. He could still hear all of the screams, the crying, the broken bones of the few ones that fell to the floor because of being pushed and stepped on. Those weren't saved from the bites of those people, but some of them couldn't stand back up because of broken legs.

It felt like a nightmare, one of those you can't wake up from until something terrible happened.

Except this was real.  



	2. Initial infection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claudette and Quentin get to escape while David and Dwight have to find a safe place to hide in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to arachnideity and polishedelectrode for the help in the corrections! And of course to calmspirited for giving me that Destroying Correction they give me to make sure that everything makes sense and get rid of my mistakes! 
> 
> This chapter was going to be twice as long so I decided to cut it in half. I want to write more in less time!

"Unlock the car right now!!"

How did this situation even begin? Five minutes ago, they were having fun at the Arcade and now there were some strange monstrous humans all over the place. Everyone was running for their lives, screaming their lungs out, rushing into every single place they could barricade themselves into. Some of them chose shops, some buildings, and the lucky ones that had the keys ran into their cars to drive away as fast as they could without caring too much about running over monsters... or people.

The ones in the shops didn't have too much luck, the monsters had it too easy to break into them by smashing the glass door or the enormous display windows. On the other hand, those that were getting inside the buildings seemed to be doing better. The doors were resistant and the monsters were too busy fighting each other to try to get inside to actually try.

But the ones that were left in the open because of no one letting them get in their safe spots were the ones having the worst time. They screamed and begged for them to open the doors, which they didn't and did all they could to keep them closed, which attracted the monsters' attention to them and made them become their next victims.

They'd seen someone open a door to a building once only for a few monsters to push the beggars and rush inside. They couldn't see what happened because of the way the glass of the door was splattered with more blood than they'd ever seen but it wasn't like they wanted to stare for too long, the silhouettes of the struggling people inside being enough for them to look away.

"Quentin, I said unlock the car!", Claudette yelled as she tried to climb over him to do so herself, but Quentin was holding her back.

"We can't, don't you see?! Look around! As soon as you step out there, you're dead!"

It was gruesome. The way the victims desperately screamed as their blood splattered all over the place was setting both of them in a state of panic, which only got worse every time they saw the corpses convulsing and quickly standing back up to go after new victims.

"But Dwight is inside!". The loss of a friend because of not being there to help him would make her feel guilty her entire life or at least whatever was left of it now that living didn't seem to be something viable. Quentin had to become serious, more than he'd ever been with her. His decisions and actions would decide their fate.

Grabbing her by both of her shoulders, he pushed her back into her seat and kept her there by pressing her back into it. At that moment, he had to make a choice: making her mad at him for keeping her locked inside the car... or letting her run into an impending death.

"Do you think I don't want to help him?! You're drunk! You wouldn't even be able to make it to the entrance!" he yelled. He would feel sorry about doing that later and most likely apologize, but he was doing it for the greater good. At least that had managed to keep her still while he was the one talking before she lashed out at him.

"I can't leave him in there!", she yelled as she tried to climb over him again to get out of the car. Quentin had to wrap his arms around her and trap her in place, making her squirm violently.

"There's nothing you can do, please stay inside!"

"What if there is!?"

"What if there's not?! He might be dead already!!"

He might be dead already.

They stared at each other for a few seconds that felt like eternity. Realization kicking in, they both stared at the entrance through the window: it was so cramped it was almost impossible to move there. There were monsters trying to get in and humans trying to get out, and as soon as a human managed to escape they got tackled and attacked, quickly becoming monsters afterwards.

Quentin couldn't take his eyes off of what was going on in there... at least until he heard his friend's breathing. It was heavy and fast, when he looked at her she was staring down at her feet as tears streamed down her face, trembling and seeming to be completely out of it.

"Claudette, no, listen to me... he'll b--"

_**"HE'S DEAD!! HE'S DEAD BECAUSE I ABANDONED HIM!!"** _

"No, he... he's not... damn it!" he bit his lower lip and pushed her back to her seat. At least now he knew that she wouldn't move so he took the chance to fasten her seatbelt and turned around again to look through the window. He wanted to run out of the car to try to get Dwight or whatever was left of him- outside of that place, but he was scared to find him dead or even worse: turned into a monster. Would he even be able to make it inside? Claudette would be left on her own, drunk.

He didn’t have too much time to consider it, especially after one of the monsters broke the window on Claudette's side with one of their strange limbs, shards flying everywhere inside the car and leaving minor scratches on Claudette's arms. Her scream made Quentin quickly step on the gas, trying to avoid running over everyone outside and doing his best not to collide against other cars that were being ruthlessly driven to get away from that place.

"Text him!", he yelled as he fastened his own seatbelt with a hand as he drove. "If he's okay, he'll answer as soon as he can!". It was probably the easiest way to keep her mind busy and with some hope of getting a text back.

Claudette nodded, her crying having stopped at the fear of the monster almost getting in through the window. She took her phone out and began typing as she begged in whispers for an answer.

 

* * *

 

_"Dwight! Get yer shit together!"_

With a vigorous shake on his shoulders, David managed to get Dwight to come back into his senses. He’d been quietly freaking out for a longer time than he should have in such a situation, a few seconds marked the difference between being alive and being dead but was he to blame for having such a reaction?

"We 'ave to peg it before they catch us!", he yelled as he pointed at the exit.

"...but it's cramped!"

"I'll fight 'em, just stay behind me!"

David would stop at nothing, even if it meant he had to fight some weird mutant -it'd probably be one of the most interesting fights he'd ever had. However, Dwight knew it wasn't a good idea at all. The woman that had attacked him wasn't too heavy or too strong but it was the way she was all in for hurting him what made him not be able to protect himself properly.

"No!", the deliverer yelled, grabbing David's jacket and pulling so he wouldn't run away. "Don't you see? There's no one getting out!"

"They are, just look!"

"Look again"

Now he was the one pointing towards the exit, especifically to someone that seemed to be pushing everyone aside to escape. They had their hand pressed against their arm, trying to stop the bleeding of a missing part of their flesh, and somehow they made it to one of the broken windows to jump outside.

"They escaped! We 'ave to go to that window too!!". The fact that Dwight was keeping him in place was making David get even more tense and that was the worst outcome there could be.

"David, just look!!"

That person hadn't managed to even give a couple of steps before they were tackled down not only by one monster, but by a few of them. And they weren't only from outside the Arcade -some of them had become one inside that place.

He was right. They couldn't just run outside, but there were no hopes of survival inside either. None that David knew of, at least.

"The bathroom!", Dwight gasped. "David, the bathroom! We can lock ourselv--". Dwight was interrupted by a tight squeeze and pull, quickly moving away from their spot to dodge one of the monsters trying to attack them just to hit the machine behind them.

"Move!", David demanded as he grabbed Dwight by the wrist so he wouldn't lose him.

This was the moment when he was most thankful of his short rugby career: nothing could stand in his way. He charged against everyone that was in front of him. Monsters? Of course. Normal people? ...also rammed out of their way.

"What are you doing?!"

"It's either 'em or us!"

It was true. In these situations, there were only a few that would get out of their way to help someone else and Dwight wished it could be him, but David was making sure that he wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Ye want to die, too?!"

"No, but--!"

"Then follow yer own plan! I'm not lettin' ye die in 'ere!"

As awful as it made Dwight feel having to put others as risk for their own safety, he knew it was for the best, just like he’d stopped David before from running straight into Death’s arms.

Having to act in a sensible way instead of doing what they would usually do was one of the hardest things they had ever done. David wanted to fight everyone while Dwight wanted to fight _for_ everyone. However, at that moment they couldn’t think about their own wishes. They had to take care of each other and make sure both of them would make it out alive.

"David!"

Taking a quick look behind himself, he realized they had a couple monsters chasing them -now it was clear that they couldn't stop running or else, so David began running as fast as he could, gripping Dwight's forearm harder. The poor guy could barely keep his pace, almost tripping to the floor a few times. Thankfully, with some small jumps, the shorter man was capable of following. The same thing happened with the monsters too, since one was faster than the other the one got left behind.

"There! The bathroom!"

David didn't hesitate, being used to going to the males' one he prepared himself. They both knew that other people had most likely trapped themselves in them, so without hesitation David let Dwight's forearm go and ran into the door as hard as he could, busting it open and making the ones inside that were trying to keep it closed fall to the floor screaming. A couple seconds after him, Dwight ran inside the bathroom too.

One of the guys inside was too upset about what had just happened, quickly standing back up to push David. "Who do you think you are?! This was our hideout!"

"Piss off ye wanker!! If ye think I'm gonna let us be killed ye're fuckin' crazy!"

Hell. Dwight had never seen him being angry to the point of talking like that, but he'd seen how he'd started fights and this looked like one was about to happen. There was no time to  worry about them though, hopefully they'd be able to work it out themselves.

Quickly checking on the other person that had fallen to the floor, he lifted his gaze to the door only to find out one of the monsters that had been chasing them was approaching as fast as they could. "Help me!", he yelled as he pushed the door to keep it closed, the guy that was on the floor rushing to help him keep the door closed as a woman walked all around the bathroom talking loudly on her phone asking for help.

The screaming, the crying, the two men yelling at each other along with the monster banging and pushing the door... this was too much for Dwight. He leaned all of his weight against the door, closing his eyes for a second. He couldn't think straight, it felt like he had his head underwater and he couldn't hear anything properly. Just wake up. That couldn't be happening, none of this seemed to be real.

They had always thought that these situations only happened on TV shows. Who would ever believe that _monsters_ could exist? That dead people could come back to life? Somehow it was happening and they would never know if it was because of a parasite or because of humans trying to play God.

"You, hey you!". The man on his side bumped their shoulders together to get Dwight out of his trance. "I don't know what you're doing but help me keep this damn door closed!".

"Yes, sorry, sorry...!", he whispered, looking at David again. _"Fuck"_.

As expected, David and the other guy were about to fight each other, both of them keeping a hold of the other by their shirt and jacket; their faces uncomfortably close as they stared right into their eyes. None of them would move back, it was easy to tell how tense they were by the way they had their arms flexed. If one of them did the first movement there would be a fight in there, and that would only make things worse.

Dwight grabbed the woman by her wrist, pulling her to the door so she'd help that guy keep it closed.

"It's not the time!", he yelled as he put his hands between them, trying to push them away from each other. "We can barely keep the door closed, help us!". If they didn't do anything that thing would get inside and probably after that one more of them would follow it. The banging and pushes on the door became more violent, the loud noises driving David over the edge.

"YE WANT TO BE SAFE?", the bigger male yelled, pushing the other two away from him. Without saying anything else, he grasped Dwight's arm and forced him to get inside one of the stalls, Dwight getting so scared that he just let him push him around and stared at him wide eyed. The hold on his arm tightened before he spoke up again, making Dwight let out a soft whimper as he stood on his toes because of being pushed up and closer to his friend's face.

"Lock the door and get out, or else yer gonna get hurt". Pushing Dwight inside, he held the door by the top of it and slammed it close. "NOW!"

"Okay, okay!", Dwight squeaked, quickly locking the door and trying to climb outside but it was too difficult -his hands were too slippery because of blood, the wounds on his forearms had been bleeding for quite a long time. Luckily enough, the toilets of that place were clean so crawling to the next stall and out was no problem. That shouldn't even worry him at that moment.

When David saw him walking out, he grunted loudly and gave a step back before using all of his strength to kick the door close to the hinges making them break. The others in the room flinched, seeing how aggressive he was made them trust him even less. Grabbing the door, he had the ones blocking the door quickly move away and blocked the door by putting the broken one between it and the wall. That way it would be impossible to open the door unless the monsters outside managed to find a way to break it.

Slowly stepping back, the scrapper sighed and looked back to check on the others. They were staring back at him, all of them far away enough to feel safe. Even the guy that he was about to fight had decided not to create more trouble, especially with a guy that could probably kick his ass since he seemed to know some dirty tricks to hurt him and who knew? Maybe he went on hurting all of the other ones in the room. But he didn't care about them. Probably the only thing that made him realize what he'd just done was the way Dwight wasn't looking at him at all, keeping his gaze lowered to look at his arms as he rubbed the place David had grabbed with an iron grasp, having the mark of his fingers on his skin.

It made his heart sink.

"Dwight...", he whispered as he approached him slowly, trying to look the least imposing he could even lowering his head to shrink in size. The deliverer looked at him with a rather saddened face, not really knowing what to say. "I'm sorry, I--" --loud banging on the door interrupted him, making both of them flinch and look at the door. They needed to get out of there, but there was no way to do it.

Gently placing both hands on Dwight's arms, he gently rubbed down until he heard a soft whine. The wounds. He had to take care of them. Carefully taking his hands, he gently tugged them to coax him to walk to the sinks together and turned the faucet on to clean Dwight's wounds. None of them said anything, they weren't really listening to whatever the others were saying because they were too concentrated on each other.

"...I'm really sorry"

"...it's fine"

"No, it's not" David sighed, drying his hands on his jeans. "I lose control all the time, Dwight. I can't just go around ‘urtin' people. What if I ‘urt ye again?". David looked real guilty. He'd hurt him, maybe not as much as that monster, but still. Even if he'd protected him before it didn't make what he'd done any more acceptable. " ‘old on". David took his jacket off, leaving it on a dry part of the sink before taking his shirt off, grabbing it by the neck and pulling it apart to easily rip it in half.

That sight was surprising to Dwight. How strong was this guy? He took a quick look at his torso -he wasn't all muscle. His abs were only slightly visible, a layer of fat over it had him more or less understand that if he wanted he could probably kill a guy with a single blow to the face. He was lucky that he had him on his side.

"Lemme see yer forearms"

Dwight did as he said, lifting one of his forearms between them and looked up, both of them giving a quick look into each other's eyes before paying attention to the wounds again. Carefully drying Dwight's arms with paper towels stacked next to the sink, David wrapped the first half of his shirt around Dwight's forearm. The same was done with the other one, both staying close in comfortable silence. It was like they had forgotten what was happening around them but it didn't last for too long, Dwight's phone ringing in his pocket.

Reaching for his phone, Dwight knew there were only two people that would try to contact him. There were some messages that had been sent a few minutes before, but he'd been so stressed out that he hadn't heard the phone at all. There were a few of Claudette’s messages, full of typos, sent just to try to get his attention.

[Dwight]: claudette?

 

* * *

 

"Quentin!!", she yelled, rushing to her phone when it vibrated.

Those two had somehow managed to make it back to their home, a rented two-story house in a nice neighbourhood at the outskirts of the city. They had been incredibly lucky -if it wasn’t for their car, they’d be dead by now.

Quentin ran towards Claudette, relieved to know that she’d yelled his name not because of monsters being around but because of Dwight messaging her back.

“You talk, I’ll keep on blocking the doors”

With that said, Quentin moved back to pushing furniture at the front and back doors. Not everyone was ready for such a thing, was it even normal to have wood planks and nails lying around your home? There wasn’t even a way to protect the windows that wasn’t closing the blinds all the way down.

Meanwhile, Claudette didn’t know what to reply to him.

[Claudette]: im sorry dwight  
[Claudette]: i love you im sorry we left you  
[Dwight]: its ok. i love you too  
[Dwight]: is quentin there? are you ok?  
[Claudette]: we’re at home  
[Claudette]: we’re blocking the windows  
[Claudette]: where are you?  
[Dwight]: still at the arcade  
[Dwight]: david and i are trapped in the bathroom  
[Dwight]: theres more people with us

The bathroom!!

Claudette gasped loudly, trying to stop her hands from trembling. Maybe they still had a chance.

[Claudette]: which bathroom?

It took Dwight a few seconds to reply, he was probably confused about that question.

[Claudette]: dwight  
[Claudette]: answer now

The three dots that gave away the other person is typing suddenly stopped. There was silence. No answer.

[Claudette]: please answer  
[Claudette]: dwight  
[Claudette]: im serious

Yet no one replied.

Still, she kept on writing to him a few messages until she couldn’t deal with the silence anymore. Claudette had to leave the phone on the table and stumbled backwards until she reached a couch, falling on her back on it.

Was he dead?

 

* * *

 

“What is that?”

One of the guys inside had grabbed Dwight by his wrist, pulling him away from David and looking at his bandaged forearm. His phone fell to the floor, which David picked up again. He was about to yell and start another fight because no one was allowed to push Dwight around, but he got scared at the loud gasp the woman in the room let out.

“That’s… that’s the guy the monster attacked the first! It’s him!”

Silence again, but this time it wasn’t only uncomfortable. It gave off a hostile vibe from the guy holding him.

“...you have to leave”, the man holding him hissed. “Leave or I’ll kill you. You’re going to become one of them”

Whatever was wrong with that man made everyone else in the room stare at him, wide eyed. Even David was surprised about it. What did he mean? Was Dwight going to turn into a monster, too?

Dwight had to choose between dying or dying and also getting David in trouble.

He wasn’t entirely sure about what he should do, but if he didn’t make a quick choice… he could fuck it all up for everyone.

Even more if he did become a monster.

Or a zombie, fitting the description of what that man had just said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be uploading art and stuff at my tumblr for this au! : https://infectedbydaylight.tumblr.com/
> 
> This is what the zombies look like! : https://infectedbydaylight.tumblr.com/post/168557802659/


	3. Escaping the Arcade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David and Dwight are at the Arcade's bathroom and they have to escape.
> 
> Once again. Bless u calmspirited for correcting me and Thanks to Queenevaine for finding Jek's extra writing on the chapter , ,,kskjdkl  
> And engelsschwert for reading to make sure it's an understandable piece of text ilu mutti (;

“Wait, what? Why?” Dwight asked, looking at the man who seemed to be watching over everyone in there with fear.

"Shut up, he's right! You can't stay!"

" 'ey, what do ye think yer sayin'? Why should we leave?!"

"This was OUR room!"

With everyone against him, it would be impossible to stay in that safe spot. As safe as it could be for them at least, considering how you could slice the tension in the room with a knife. Everyone was staring at Dwight with fear in their eyes except for one of them who maybe wasn't scared of him but instead scared of losing him to that sickness.

"I swear t'God if ye lay a 'and on 'im yer the next one we're kissin' good-bye", he hissed as he took a couple steps closer.

"If you get any closer, I'm... I'm killing him before he kills us!", the man yelled as he pulled Dwight closer to put him on a choke-hold from behind. Dwight gripped the man's arms with both of his hands, trying to pull him away and squirming. That only made that guy tighten the hold around his neck.

It was in the moment of his stuttering in which David had realized that the man holding Dwight wasn't going to be capable of murdering him. His expression was more of a fearful one, it was desperation rather than aggressiveness.

The phone's vibration caught David's attention so he took a quick look at it. Oh, thank God.

“What the ‘ell do ye mean with _‘before he kills us’_!?”

"He got attacked! He's going to turn into one of them!"

David looked back at both of them, rolling his eyes. It should sound stupid -some monster attacking them and making him become one of them? It made them think of…

"...zombies do not fuckin' exist, ye brainless cunt! What kinda bullshit are ye talkin' about?!"

"You've seen the same we have! They look dead and they're moving around, they infect each other! I'm not going to die because of your friend!"

Dwight was pushed back to David, who held him protectively. David wanted to go and fight him again but he was stopped with a hand to the chest and a soft push. He wanted to fight him so badly that he had to hold the smaller man tighter not to stomp towards the other guy, maybe tighter than Dwight preferred but if it helped he didn't mind it. That man was too busy cleaning his arms and hands from Dwight's blood to pay too much attention to them at that moment.

 _"David… they're right”_ he whispered. That was it. He was dead. And he was becoming one of them. _"I have to go"_

" **Yeah, right!** Ain't leavin' ye on yer own til yer bloody dead. No 'but's"

It was somehow relieving to know he could count on David, but did it matter if he was going to die anyway?

"Listen t’me", David whispered. "Yer friend said there's a window in the other bathroom. We 'ave to go and no, we're not tellin' 'em. Ye know what they'll do? They'll leave ye in 'ere. Or use ye as a bait and I'd 'ave to fight 'em again. Ye don't want that, do ye?". Dwight shook his head and sighed, resting his forehead against his chin. The thought of having to let them die was also killing him, but there was nothing they could do.

David pat Dwight's back before giving a step back, gently pushing him aside and glaring at the other three in the room. If he hadn't read Claudette's last messages he would have actually tried to fight them just so they would have been able to stay until the monsters broke into the bathroom or Dwight became a monster, if that could even happen. It wasn't something he wanted to think about.

"A'ight, we'll leave but remember this: ye might not have killed us with yer own 'ands but our blood will still be on 'em"

That made the man look aside, uncomfortable at the truth in his words. "I did it for the greater good!"

"Yeah, accusin' someone of becomin' some kinda zombie!"

"You've seen the same as the rest of us!"

**"I'm goin' t'fuckin' bash yer...!"**

_"David, please"_ , Dwight interrupted.

It was enough. David was incredibly hot-headed and exchanging a few words with someone meant they could end up in a fight.

"...come on"

Before moving to the door, David grabbed his jacket and put it on before guiding Dwight to the exit.

"Stay 'ere"

The broken door was still keeping the exit door closed, leaning against it and against the wall in front of it so it would be impossible to open it. David sighed, moving closer to the exit to press his ear against the door to check if he could hear any monsters nearby.

There were too many noises to find out, the screams hadn't subsided yet and all kinds of destruction seemed to be happening outside, even a couple of car crashes had happened while they were inside that place.

Dwight approached him, placing a hand on his back and leaning over the door to try to listen too, but both of them were taken aback by the yells of the guy trying to kick them out.

_**"FASTER!"** _

Both of them flinched and looked behind, David groaning and turning around, pushing Dwight on accident with his shoulder. This time Dwight wasn't capable of stopping him, not even grabbing his sleeve and pulling as hard as he could or yelling his name.

A couple of steps was all he could approach him before the banging on the door started again, and it was easy to tell it wasn't only one monster but a bunch of them trying to get the door opened.

" 'ow the fuck are we supposed to leave now!?"

"That's not our problem! Wait until they're gone and---"

With a loud bang and a scream just as high as it from the woman in the room, they all looked at the door again.

"...it's her", Dwight whispered as he watched what had caused that noise.

The strange appendage from the performer that had attacked him had made a hole through the door, twitching, the large black spike, whose luminescent orange tip would have been shining if a coating of blood hadn’t been covering its sheen.

The monster pulled back, the hole big enough for her to peek inside the bathroom by getting one of her arms and her head through it. They all stared at her, wide eyed, as she slowly scanned the room. Maybe if they didn't move she wouldn't see them. They wished it was true. However, even if her eyes were as pale as the ones of a blind person, she could easily see them, even smiling when she did as she moved out of the room.

Before they could do or say anything else, the performer slammed her monstrous spike against the door again, even a third and a fourth time, the ones in the room pressing their backs against the wall further away from them while David stepped between Dwight and the door. He was as scared as everyone else but there was no way he was going to go out without a fight.

"David! There!" He pointed at the small space under the door that was keeping the exit closed. The monsters were only breaking the upper part of it and the way it was being obstructed made the other door stay in place without falling.

The scrapper grabbed Dwight by the back of his neck and pulled him down as he knelt down, pushing him to the space closest to the wall so he could kick the monsters if they were to find them, Dwight's legs spread so David could get as furthest away from the open space as he could by pressing his back against him.

"PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!" The woman ran to the door, throwing herself on her knees to crawl to them, begging for them to let her in their small space, but before David could do anything to push her away her yelling stopped suddenly; replaced with coughing that sprayed blood on his face and a loud crack made her become limp. The spike of the performer’s arm was sunk into her back for a few seconds before pulling back, the wet sound of her slippery guts falling in a pool of her own blood making David have to cover his mouth and look aside at how nauseous it made him feel.

Dwight couldn’t see what was going on, but he wrapped both of his arms around David and pulled him back after seeing his reaction. Whatever was happening out there, whatever that noise had been, he didn’t want to know. If they were to die he didn’t want to know what kind of terrible things they’d do to them.

They could hear the other two men in the room screaming, both trying to get in the same stall but one of them leaving the other out and locking the door. His first reaction was to yell at him, banging the door with his fists before realizing there was a second door there but it was too late for him -before he could close it, both of the monsters that had arrived to the room were tackling him down. All they could see was his legs, kicking the air to fight back until both fell limp to the floor, a pool of blood spreading on the floor.

“Now, Dwight”, David whispered, standing up and carefully pushing the door that was blocking the remaining part of the other over their heads and making it lean against the wall.

Being able to leave the room without making a noise, they finally were able to run to the bathroom in front of that one -the women's bathroom. The one with the window to freedom. Freedom… or death. They hadn’t considered that side of escaping the Arcade since they hadn’t been able to see much of the street yet. At least inside they had rooms to hide in, but going outside was a death wish.

“Over ‘ere, come on!”

David opened the door and waited for Dwight, putting his jacket on again and taking a quick look around to make sure they were safe. That was when he spotted a monster staring back at him, the gaze being the only thing it needed to screech and run towards them.

“Quick, it’s comin’!!”

As soon as Dwight ran inside the bathroom David closed the door, Dwight turning and pushing him against it.

“Stay there and--”

The monster was already at the door trying to get it opened, but David pressed his back against it while Dwight pushed it with both hands at each side of the taller man’s body.

“--when I tell you, run with me”, he whispered.

David nodded, leaning all of his weight into the door as Dwight ran to the stalls, finding the one that had the window in it and standing on the toilet to try to get it opened, but he was having too much trouble with it. It was stuck.

"I can't... David, I can't open it! Come here!"

There was no hesitation from David, running towards the stall and closing its door as the monster tackled the door open.

Wrapping both arms around his waist, David picked Dwight up to quickly pull him away from the toilet and leave him on the door before standing on the toilet himself to use all of his strength to try to open it. Meanwhile, Dwight had his back against the door to prevent the monster from breaking the cheap lock that kept the stalls closed, sweat all over his face because of how weak the door felt whenever the monster used all of its body to try to bust it open.

“David please, do it faster!”

“Dammit Dwight, I’m doin’ what I can!”

“Thank God you didn’t get in a fight with that guy because he would have kicked your ass!”

That was the last straw for David.

With a loud hoarse grunt, he pulled on the window as hard as he could but it didn’t only open -it was in such bad state it just came off completely. Smirking in victory, David turned around to see how Dwight was doing.

“Yeah, ‘e would ‘ave kic…”

Dwight was kind of laughing, at much as the effort and anxiety allowed him to, and it made David realize he’d tried to anger him on purpose. It had worked.

“Come on, I’ll ‘old the door for ye, get out first”. Now he was the one with both hands on both sides of Dwight’s head, pushing the door with all of his weight, but Dwight didn’t move away from it.

_“No”_

“...what?”

“If one of us doesn’t hold the door, that thing will break it”

“So what? I can get out easier than ye!”

“Not faster than what it’ll take that thing to break the door!”

“Then I’ll kill it!”

“David please! Look!”

Dwight lifted both of his arms, showing him the bloody make-do bandages David had made by breaking his own shirt in half and wrapping them around his bandages.

 _“What if they were right?! What if I become one of them?!”._ Dwight’s voice cracked, his breathing becoming labored again. He couldn’t help but be scared about that situation. “He said it, we both saw them standing back up after dying!”

They remained quiet for a few seconds, staring at each other until Dwight lowered his gaze.

_“David, please… just go. I’m dead either way”_

The reality of the situation made David’s chest and arms grow hot, having to let it out by punching the door. He didn’t want to accept it. Not when he’d finally managed to get a bit closer to him. He couldn’t really tell what he was feeling at that moment. Anger? Sadness? Fear? A weird mix of them all that made him feel like he’d failed him. He hadn’t been able to protect him.

It wasn’t like Dwight was feeling any better than him. He was keeping his gaze lowered, his mind almost completely blank except for the thoughts of becoming a monster.

“...’ey”. David lifted Dwight’s chin with the side of his index so he’d look up at him. “If ye ‘ave to die, it’s not goin’ to be here. I’ll ‘elp ye get through the window. Got it?”

The deliverer  nodded, leaning all of his weight against the door again as David moved back to the window. He climbed outside, the only difficulty being the fact that it was a too tight space for him to easily squeeze through, then took a quick look around to check if there were any monsters there. They were lucky that the window led to an empty alley, or at least one in which there were a couple of corpses but they didn’t seem to be moving. Yet.

Now that the music from the Arcade was mostly muffled, David was able to hear the chaos that had developed since the first monster appeared and he was actually somewhat scared, even if he wasn’t going to admit it. He’d heard people screaming in fear, both in movies and in real life, but he’d never heard a true scream of terror until now. He could start to hear the sounds of gunshots in the distance along with skidding cars and shattering glass.

A loud bang on the stall and a gasp from Dwight made David throw himself on his knees, crawling to the small window to put his hands through it.

“Come on, Dwight!”

But he didn’t move.

“Over ‘ere!”

No answer.

Was it worth it to escape? He’d been the first one in that place to get attacked, but the only one that hadn’t turned into one of them yet. Was it because he was still alive? Was it a matter of time, or maybe he was just paranoid about it?

“I’m not leaving.”

“What?!”

“I’m not leaving!”

David groaned in desperation, about to get back inside again when Dwight spoke up.

 _“It’s not worth it, please”_ , Dwight whimpered, feeling his eyes beginning to tear up. It was just a matter of time. _“What if I hurt you, what if I hurt more people?”_

“I promise, if ye become one of them I… I’ll… kill you myself.” Maybe he wasn’t ready to kill anyone, just like the guy from the bathroom. Not Dwight, at least. But it was the only way he thought Dwight would get out of that place. “If it’s really that zombie bullshit, but now ye’re riskin’ both of our lives. Get out of there!”

That was all he needed to hear.

Dwight rushed to the window, David stretching his arms inside so they could hold onto each other and he could climb out before the monster broke the lock and got inside. It didn’t see Dwight at the stall and it didn’t seem to be smart enough to realize he’d escaped through it, so it turned around and left.

Outside, the survivors were sitting on the floor, David engulfing Dwight in an embrace and pressing him against his chest as he sank his nose on his hair.

“Don’t ye fuckin’ say anythin’ like that again”, he whispered, squeezing him closer and sighing. “I’m tellin’ ye I’m not lettin’ one of those kill ye. If we ‘ave to die, I’ll make sure it’s fast.”

“…okay”. As creepy as that could be in another situation, it was comforting to hear it. It was better to die quickly than feeling the monsters opening you up or ripping your flesh out with bites. “David… thank you. We have to get out of here.”

David nodded, standing up and offering Dwight his hand to help him stand, Dwight tugging it so David would follow him before letting it go.

“My motorbike is in the parking lot. It might not be the safest way to escape but it’s probably better than running.”

The other man wasn’t going to argue with him about it, just wanting to get out of that place fast, but before they could make it out of the alley, a monster suddenly landed in front of them.

This was worse than they’d seen before, it was huge, disfigured, part of his face was missing and it had been replaced with strange skin that seemed to be harder than their skull, its eye resembling one of an insect. All of its wounds and missing pieces of flesh had been replaced with the glowy orange pieces of rock that kept the monsters from falling apart, and its torn clothes were full of blood that was dripping out of its mouth. It was missing an arm, but instead of only one spike growing out of it it was three of them, growing out of its shoulder and back too…

And they would have been able to continue checking how monstrous it was if it wasn’t for the gunshot that made it fall to the floor on its side, part of his skull and brain pretty much exploding as Dwight and David flinched back.

“...sir?”

“Did you think I was going to stay at home while there were people out there who needed help?”

An old man holding a shotgun approached them quickly, with a small limp on one of his legs. David already seemed to know him, so Dwight decided to remain silent and let them do the talking.

He gave David a gun from his holster, giving a quick look at Dwight before turning around to make sure no other monsters would catch them off guard. “Can you aim?”

“I’ve never--”

“Then you better stay close to us, because I can’t trust you with a gun, son. King, over here.”

David nodded, stepping closer to to the older man to cover the opposite side. He grabbed Dwight’s shoulder with a hand while he kept the gun lifted so he’d be able to aim properly in case he needed to shoot.

Dwight took a look around only to be reminded about how this wasn’t anything like a movie. There were no random guns laying around, no crowbars or metal tubes. They had been lucky enough to having been found by someone that seemed to trust David enough to give him a gun.

“Keep your heads up, I’ll take you to a safe place. There’s no one alive in my building, you’ll be safe there.”

Feeling a squeeze on his shoulder, Dwight took a quick look at David, who was looking back at him and nodded.

They’d be fine, at least for the moment.


	4. Plans and unexpectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwight, David and Bill think of plans while Claudette and Quentin find 'something' that shouldn't be there.
> 
> Thank you as usual to calmspirited and also to queenevaine and m-a-s-h-t-y-x for the help on correcting this thing, and also to engelsschwert for reading it as I wrote it ofc <3

“I have it!”, Dwight yelled as he pulled his backpack outside of the trunk of his motorbike, looking back at the other two men that were guarding the surroundings so nothing or no one could ambush them.

They had already had a talk about why they shouldn't try to escape on a vehicle -with the amount of people running around the streets and having accidents on their own cars, there was no space for those to move; so even if it looked like the safest option they knew that killing other people would take a toll on them they wouldn't be able to endure. Bill had killed his fair share of people during war so he was prepared for this, not having to feel bad because they weren’t people -they were monsters.

The oldest man signed at them to follow with a quick movement of his hand, Dwight sliding his arms in the loops of the handles of his bag and approaching Bill again to follow instructions. David looked at Dwight and took his hand, squeezing it gently. There were too many people running around the place, pushing each other, and he didn't want to lose track of him.

“We're gonna take the shortest way back to my building, then I'll go out rescue some more people”, the old man said, giving David a weird look when he saw him holding the shorter guy's hand. He didn't allow that to distract him, though, that was none of his business. “You don't have to come. Stay there and take care of each other, got it?”

“Yes, Sir!”, David exclaimed, sounding somewhat amused.

“This isn't the army anymore, King, I can tell by your comradeship.”

Such an accusation made David almost choke on his own saliva, making him reconsider whether to keep holding Dwight’s hand or not, but the old man was right. There was no reason to hide his feelings anymore, especially when the end of the world had seemed to arrive. Instead, he squeezed his hand and looked around to make sure no monsters would be able to get close enough to them.

There were so many cars on the road that they couldn’t move at all, crashed cars jamming them and forcing people out of their own vehicles to run instead. The oldest man only saw that as an advantage, that way they wouldn’t be ran over, so he ordered the other two to follow close behind him and shoot only when there were monsters that were to about to attack them. As much as he wanted to get others to a safe place too, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep all of them alive.

“The army? Isn’t he too old for that?”, Dwight whispered, taking a quick look at the older man before looking back at David.

“Yeah, but ‘e was a ‘igher rank. ‘e was my coach, see that limp? ‘e wasn’t allowed into missions anymore. The name’s Bill, ‘es old but tough.”

“Hm”. Would they be in danger because of him? Bill wasn’t really running, he was trotting instead, and if they needed to escape he’d slow them down. Then again, he’d just saved them.

“Stop thinking, send a message to yer friends and let ‘em know we’ll be safe soon. I’ll watch yer back.”

How did he do it? Making him feel safe in the middle of an apocalypse that had just began? A stare, a nod, a pat on the shoulder, anything was good enough coming from him to calm him down.

With a nod, Dwight took his phone out and unlocked it, seeing a huge amount of messages he’d received from Claudette and Quentin, but he didn't read them. He stared at Claudette’s name in his notifications instead, then pressed the phone against his lips. Thinking about the future had always made him get anxious and this situation only made it worse, the empathy eating him from the insides.

They wouldn’t have anything, if they survived. Clean water would most likely stop being a thing, food would expire, hygiene would be hard to accomplish and Claudette would eventually run out of stuff she needed for that bad week. No more medicines, no more easy access to electricity or fuel, which rendered technology useless…

“...whatever yer thinkin’ about, cut it.”

Dwight gasped, lifting his gaze and looking around. They were hiding behind some cars, kneeling down and reloading their guns to be able to defend themselves without a problem, but that wasn’t good enough for the deliverer.

“We have to steal. Now. Before things settle and everyone begins grabbing things.”

“There’s a Walmart a few streets away, son.”

Looking at each other, Bill nodded. He was right, they needed things as fast as they could and he was surprised an inexperienced guy like him had been able to think straight for a few seconds in such a situation. His doubts about Dwight being an useful part of the ‘team’ faded some and he decided to give him a chance -not with a gun, though. Not yet.

“Ya probably already thought of what we need to grab, right?” He only waited for a couple of seconds for his reply, only seeing Dwight looking over the car to try to find out what street they were in. They’d have to get out in the open to be able to reach it, making it more dangerous to reach it since there would be no places to hide.

“Move it.”

 

* * *

 

“Quentin, there’s no time...” Claudette whined but stopped mid sentence, making sure that they had locked all of the doors and windows properly.

“I have already checked. We’re safe.” He was kneeling down in front of the coffee table, leaning his elbows on it with both hands holding his necklace, which he kept pressed against his lips. She knew how important that was to him, how his beliefs had helped him many times to control his anxiety, and the least she could do now that they were settled was support him. Being the scientific nerd she was it was impossible for her to believe in any kind of Gods, she’d never prayed when she got to choose whether she wanted to do it or not, but her friend needed her now.

She knelt down next to him, not really knowing what to do or say in the inner monologue she was supposed to have with a higher being, but still.

Quentin seemed to be surprised about her joining his praying. “...you don’t have to do it.”

“I know,” she said, lifting her hand to put it on top of her friend’s, “But it won’t make things worse, will it?”

He smiled and shook his head, taking her hand now instead of his necklace and resting his nose against it. “I will do it for both of us... and for Dwight”, he whispered. Claudette was glad that he’d remembered to add Dwight in his prayers, but there was someone missing there.

“...and David too,” she suggested. After all, that guy was the one that was supposedly helping Dwight at the Arcade, and even if they had seen him being an asshole sometimes, he was nice to them.

With a small nod, Quentin continued his praying. He was way more critical than Claudette about David’s behaviour -the perks of being a Christian-, but he was sensible enough to know when to judge someone.

Their silence was broken when they heard noises coming from the bedroom, both of them staring at each other for a couple of seconds before they heard something falling to the floor and breaking… and someone speaking out loud, it was a female voice. That couldn’t be a monster, could it? Unless they could talk. But it wasn’t just a woman, there was a deeper voice too.

“Who’s there?!” Claudette yelled, making Quentin put his hand over her mouth to try to keep her from speaking again, but she pushed his hand away and stared at the corridor that lead to the bedroom.

There was no answer, only slow footsteps making their way to the living room… until a tall, older man leaned against the door frame. His light grey hair contrasted with his tan skin, a dirty white t-shirt underneath a colourful hawaiian shirt was a strange choice for the season but it wasn’t like he seemed to care at all.

_“...¿qué onda?”_

 

* * *

 

“Over there!” Bill yelled as he ran in front of them, the streets opening up to a wide long road that was mostly empty except for the bodies lying on the floor or trapped inside cars. There were several different buildings with stores, one of them being the Walmart they were looking for.

Even if there were some that seemed to be alive, Bill commanded them to keep on running to their objective. He wasn’t going to risk their lives for the possibility of them approaching to help just to find out they were monsters instead of people and thankfully they understood him so they didn’t try to argue against it, instead doing as told and making sure no monsters were following them.

Making their way through the parking lot they found as expected -the entrances were blocked with everything they could find in the supermarket, but there were people peeking through spaces. Of course, David was the first one sprinting there, almost throwing Dwight to the floor because of pulling him so hard. He had to let his hand go to smack both of his own on the glass. The person behind the window display flinched, moving away from it because of how close David’s pissed off face was to it, fingertip harshly pressed against it to accusingly point at them.

“I swear t’God if ye don’t let us in I will break the glass and personally kick yer ass!”

Bill rubbed his face with exasperation, grabbing David’s arm as soon as he arrived and pulling him away from the display. He wanted to go back there and keep on threatening them to let them inside but Dwight took his hand again and gently held it, making the bigger man look back at him.

The worry on his face made him let out a deep sigh through his nose as he held his hand again, softly, to try to calm down. All he wanted was for them to be safe and the only way he was capable of showing he cared was by being somewhat aggressive. David knew it wasn’t right and he had to change his ways, but there was no way he could help it at that moment, especially knowing that Dwight would become one of those monsters sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Bill knocked on the window display, which made the man David had scared off to take another look. The veteran didn’t need to do much, showing his dog tags hanging from his neck and his shotgun. That man didn’t hesitate at all, calling for help from the other people inside to move things away from the entrance so they could get in.

David stopped for a moment, turning around and blocking Dwight’s way inside while they were still away from the door. He took his jacket off, quickly putting it around the deliverer’s shoulders so he would put it on.

“Wait, you’re going to be cold…!”

“I can grab a shirt in there, we can’t let ‘em see yer wounds! They won’t let ye in and I don’t wanna start another fight”

Right. Why would they let inside someone that was infected? Maybe it was for the best for everyone’s--

“‘ey. Ye’re makin’ that face again.”

That caught Dwight off guard, interrupting his thoughts in such a way that he wasn’t able to remember whatever he was thinking about.

With a hand on his back, David carefully pushed Dwight so he’d get inside the supermarket first, following right behind him to be greeted by a bunch of people that had barricaded themselves in there -there were at least ten people in there, including a married couple with a child.

Bill didn’t like that one bit, even if it didn’t sound too nice of him. Families only meant danger for the rest of the team, but it was a risk worth taking to save as much people as possible.

“Did you come to save us?” One of the people in there asked. “Y-you’re from the military, both of you are!”

 _“We are as damned as you.”_ Bill said, taking one last long puff of his cigarette before throwing it to the floor and stepping on it just to grab another and light it. “I don’t know if cavalry will arrive.”

Hearing that drained the remaining hope all of the people in there still had, looking at each other and then away in discomfort; the little girl hiding in her mother’s chest to begin crying. Once again, Dwight was staring at them with a broken heart. He hated having to see these things, and couldn't keep himself from speaking up because of it.

“We’re going to Bill’s building, he said everyone died so there should be enough space for us all,” Dwight blurted out feeling a bit guilty. Maybe Bill didn’t want them there, but that worry disappeared as soon as the older man approached him and gave a encouraging pat on his shoulder. “But if you want to come you have to help us carry things there.”

“Isn’t this place safer? We’ve got all the food we need and--”

“No, the doors are made of glass and they can be broken and if this is like in the movies, everyone will try to begin stealing at some point and they might k…”. The little girl was staring at Dwight now, sobbing softly. “...try to keep everything for themselves.”

They looked at each other, not knowing what to think, but there was no time to lose.

“He’s right and we’ve got no time to lose, so you either come with us or you stay out of our way.” Bill said, David staying close to them to support their decisions.

“It’s now or never.”


	5. Supplies from Walmart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small chapter where Dwight takes the lead and they get what they need while Claudette and Quentin don't know what to do with the one in his home.
> 
> \--  
> A big thank you to imthepotatoking and thetr4shcorner on tumblr for helping me correct this chapter! You made it sound more smooth than I could have ever done it. Makes me wonder if I should continue this as a comic instead haha
> 
> And of course always a special thank you to calmspirited because they offered themselves to help me too but this time I had to let you rest because you need to get your stuff done instead of helping me all the time o: <3

“Have you decided yet?” Dwight asked after a couple of minutes. The people they had found at Walmart had had enough time to decide whether they wanted to go back to Bill’s building with them or not.

“We’re coming,” the family with the child stepped closer to them. Dwight had convinced them by telling them about how dangerous it could be to stay in there. Two men stepped forward as well -a tired looking man with black hair, and a man with long brown hair tied into a bun.

The remainder of them kept quiet, keeping their gazes lowered and away in order to avoid any conversation. It wasn’t like they could force them to tag along, so Dwight decided not to push his luck and risk any confrontations or disasters.

“We’ll grab those military backpacks they sell here, I’ve seen some guns too,” Dwight said before being cut off by Bill.

“Those 'guns' are nothing but toys, son. The only real guns ya will see are the ones King and I have.”

“Then what should we get? We can’t go around without protection!”

“They sell dangerous stuff ‘ere, ye don’t need a gun. I’ve seen katanas, baseball bats, mallets, there must be iron bars lyin’ somewhere…”

“Alright,” Dwight said, turning to the ones that had decided to come along. They were nearby, staring at each other in confusion until the delivery guy caught their attention by making a quick motion for everyone to come along. He guided them to the kitchen section as fast as he could, whipping his head around as he tried to find something. _There._

“You have twenty minutes to grab whatever you need, if you finish faster go back to the front door” Dwight said as he grabbed a bunch of plastic timers. Since they had a thin rope attached to it, he placed the timers around everyone's necks before putting one around his own. Once he was done with that, he had everyone follow him around again. “Grab a weapon of your choice, then go get canned food, water, clothes, small towels, whatever you think you will need…” Those were just the basics of what they would need for the moment.

“Hold on!” the woman said, stopping suddenly since they had reached a section with toys. She had her husband set their child down, though not without some protest from him. “This place is safe, if we hear anything we can run back!” she said, kneeling down to rub her daughter’s arms. “You stay here, okay? Pick the toy you want and wait for mommy and daddy here.”

The little girl nodded, finding it more comforting to be able to play with the toys instead of going on a hunt for whatever they needed to steal to be able to survive. Without complaining at all, she walked through the aisle to find something she liked.

Her parents sighed in relief -she wouldn’t slow them down when they were grabbing the stuff they needed- and looked at each other before David gave a rough pat to the man’s shoulder, both of them looking at him and nodding.

They finally reached the outdoors section, where Dwight had taken them to get the backpacks. “Grab the military ones, just make sure you’ll be able to deal with the weight later.”

Each of them grabbed a different backpack and of course, David took a big one. Weight wasn’t really a problem to him. You just had to look at him to see how strong he was… oops. _Stop staring. Because David is staring right back at you._

“The timers,” Bill said, clearing his throat.

“Ah… the timers, right,” Dwight blurted out, grabbing his own and setting it to 20 minutes. He held it so it wouldn’t start yet. “Remember, you have twenty minutes. Then you have five minutes to go to the entrance.”

“...and what if we don’t have enough time?” the guy with black hair asked, seeming to be pretty displeased because of being given orders, but he wanted to survive and they seemed to know what they were doing.

“Then we peg it without ye.”

Both of them remained silent, David getting a nod from that guy after a few seconds. Compared to him he was physically weaker, so he wasn’t about to argue with him.

“Set your timers. Ready?” Dwight waited for them to set it to twenty minutes, but Bill moved closer to Dwight to put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze it in approval. Even if he hadn’t trusted him with the gun, he’d gained his trust to get everyone’s attention in moments of need.

Dwight looked at him and smiled nervously, getting to feel more relaxed now that he knew he had their support.

“Go”

 

* * *

 

“¿Qué? ¿Tengo monos en la cara?” the guy wearing the hawaiian jacket laughed, loudly and slowly, one of those laughters that sounded fake and annoying.

 _“What the hell is he saying?”_ Claudette whispered to Quentin, who instead of leaning against the door frame was now watching as the older man walked through the living room, plopped down onto the couch, propped his feet up and settled in.

_“Do I look like I can speak Spanish?”_

Both of them sounded equally as confused, not knowing what to do with that old guy in their living room. It was like he didn’t care that he had just broken into someone else’s home.

“¿Mia? I go to the room,” the man said, instantly making someone from another room groan loudly.

“How many times will I have to tell you? My name is _NEA! ¡Soy Nea!_ ”

A second person appeared in the room too, but this time it was a woman that looked like trouble. Her hair was shaved and blonde on one side of her head, the other half messy and electric blue, and tons of makeup on her face. Her outfit was more modern, it could even be considered somewhat edgy -tight ripped black jeans, a sleeveless shirt with a bright coloured skull underneath a plaid shirt and wearing a leather jacket on top of it all. She looked ready to party, but maybe she’d chosen the wrong day for it.

“Hey,” was all she said as she walked in the room before beginning to look around the living room, grabbing different things to see if she could use them as weapons. “You don’t mind us being in here, right?”

They were too scared about the monsters outside to argue about those things. Who knew if it could cause an unnecessary fight? Maybe they should just try to get along.

“I mean, it’s not like it’s safe outside,” Nea said, having just realized how uncomfortable they seemed to be. She didn’t want to get kicked out either. “We’re just trying to find a safe place.”

The tension instantly disappeared, Claudette and Quentin finally being able to relax and sigh in relief.

“You can stay--”

“--for now,” Quentin finished Claudette’s sentence, earning a concerned stare from her, but Nea seemed to be pleased to hear that.

They all jumped in fear when the TV was suddenly turned on, a loud noise coming from it making everyone look at it and then at Ace. He shrugged at them, saying ‘sorry’ in a thick Spanish accent as he lowered the volume.

It was live but there was no one talking, the camera seemed to be set on its side on the ground showing the street. Things only seemed to be getting worse for each minute that went by -from only just what the camera could see, there were corpses lying around and a fire in a crashed car… with a screaming person inside.

Claudette closed her eyes and pressed her face against Quentin’s chest, who covered her ears and looked at the other two to see their reactions. Nea kept her gaze lowered, looking to the side, while Ace seemed not to care too much.

“Qué suerte que no seamos nosotros,” was what the oldest guy said even if no one understood him, beginning to switch through the channels to see if there was anything on another channel that at least the others could understand, but it was either cameras lying on the floor or no signal. There wasn’t really anyone concerned with keeping the TV going, everyone was most likely hiding in fear or dead.

Quentin’s attention was brought back to Claudette when he felt her sobbing, wrapping his arms around her while Nea stared. She made a quick movement with her head, quietly telling him to take her to a different room, and he nodded. With her in that state, it seemed like the best idea was to get her away from everything.

“...he hasn’t messaged in a long time,” she whimpered as soon as they stepped into the kitchen. “...he’s dead, and we’re next.”

That left Quentin feeling uneasy. He didn’t know what to say, since he believed what she was saying. Dwight had never been the most athletic guy, so even with a ‘bodyguard’ he was fucked, and they were most likely going to die too. But he couldn’t say that.

“The police will take care of this, and… and the people who own guns. They’ll get out there and start hunting those things. That’s why they have guns, right?” he whispered, rubbing her back as he spoke. “Everything will be over before they can get us, okay? We’ll be safe as long as we’re here.”

Even if that sounded unrealistic to her, she nodded. She needed to have some faith. That was the only thing that was keeping Quentin sane at that moment.

 

* * *

 

Everything was chaotic for the few of them inside the supermarket, having run all over the place to get what they needed. Since there was no time to be picky, they had grabbed whatever they found the first, either in brands or clothes -except for making sure it was their size- and they were now looking for smaller things that Dwight knew they would need. They had already taken small filters for water, solar chargers, batteries… even some useless things while they were on their own for comfort.

David was already done, carrying a katana in his bag in case the bullets for the gun Bill had given him weren’t enough -he had way too much ammunition though. He was still weirded out about those things being sold in a _supermarket_ in America.

He aimlessly rushed through the aisles, looking around to see if he’d find someone else, until he reached the pharmacy. He should take bandages and alcohol too, since the alcohol he’d grabbed from the beverages section wasn’t the best option to disinfect wounds.

Checking all over the drawers, David began taking some things when he heard nervous fast breathing from the other room where they kept more stuff. Instantly recognizing whose voice that was, he peeked to see what he was doing.

Dwight was rushing all over the place, having left his backpack and a metal baseball bat on the floor along with the jacket, some pads and different kinds of pills.

“...ye need me t’find anythin’?” David said as he quickly approached his side, looking at the shelf to try to find out what to get.

“Ibuprofen--I--I can’t find anything, there’s no time--”

“It’s right there, Dwight,” he said with the calmest voice he could muster, getting a hold of both of his wrists and pulling his hand to the boxes. They had been there all the time and Dwight knew it, he knew that was their place, but his vision was so blurry he could barely see.

David could easily notice the state he was in, and he wasn’t feeling any better than Dwight himself, but it wasn't like he looked like he was going to pass out at any moment, unlike Dwight. He’d never seen him that pale or sweaty, or in such a rush that he couldn’t even see what was right before his eyes.

Dwight took as many boxes as he could carry and ran back to his backpack to kneel down next to it; David grabbing some too and rushing to help him putting the stuff in the backpacks.

“Lemme take some o’those in case ye lose yer backpack, okay?”

Dwight nodded, separating the boxes and the pads for Claudette in halves , and began putting them between the clothes he was carrying so they’d be protected from any damage. However, David couldn’t concentrate on what he had to do. His eyes were set on his friend’s forearms and how they were bleeding through the pieces of shirt he used as bandages in that damned bathroom. He took a quick look at the jacket on the floor which had a small blood stain on the forearms part -so that was why he wasn’t wearing it anymore!

“Nah, stop that,” David said and reached into his own backpack to take bandages, gauze and alcohol out of it. “Yer not goin’ out like this.”

“We’ve only got five minutes to finish getting what we need, David! There’s no time!”

“Ye listen to me -I’m not leavin’ this place if ye keep on bleedin’ like this. We ‘ave another five minutes to go to the entrance so don’t slow me down.”

“How many times will I have to tell you?! I’m fucking **dead** already! I’m **dea-** ”

David’s hand suddenly gripped Dwight’s jaw, fingers pressed against both of his cheeks to keep him from talking anymore. They stared at each other in silence, long, uncomfortable, it was hard to know what David was thinking about until a few seconds passed and Dwight realized David was tearing up.

The silence went on for a bit longer, the soft ticking noises of the timers and the footsteps of the ones who were running through the echoey empty aisles for supplies being the only noises at that moment before David sniffed loudly. The grip on his jaw loosened, his thumb rubbing over Dwight’s full lips to cup his cheek; hand in which the deliverer leaned his head into and he lowered his gaze as David carefully moved closer to him.

 _“...let’s make this easier for the both of us,”_ David murmured, his raspy voice making a tingling sensation spread throughout the smaller man’s body. _“...can I?”_


	6. Small talk at the pharmacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shorter episode because I was just dying to finally write some shippy stuff between these two. Since it's shorter, I threw in a drawing! I'll write "(kingfield)" at the beginning of episode names that only have these two being lovely, in case you don't like that kind of content!
> 
> I'd like to thank Hannahbal_Rising and MrUnicorn for the support, it made me feel like I should go on even if it's hard. So really, thank you <3
> 
> Thanks for imthepotatoking for corrections -jek... get ready... I'll be back to bothering you on next episode if you're available B)

“...I’m sorry,” Dwight whispered.

David and him were close to each other, the bigger man kneeling in front of the other with a hand on his cheek. Even if his hands were big and rough they had a gentle touch on Dwight’s skin, soothing him from everything that was troubling him at that moment.

With a hand placed over David’s on his cheek, Dwight closed his eyes and remained still for a few seconds, then slowly nodded to give him permission to go on. His breathing was slow again and he was as calm as he could be.

Wrapping both of his arms around Dwight’s waist, David pulled him into his lap so Dwight’s back was against his chest and pressed his nose against his temple, taking a deep breath as he slowly slid a hand up his body to get a hold of his timer and set it to zero so it wouldn’t make a noise; doing the same thing with his own afterwards. They didn’t need them, they’d hear the timers of the other people going off in the distance after all. Whatever took stress off of themselves was something David would make sure would happen.

“This is going to hurt, but we can’t risk the wounds getting infected,” David said as he moved his head away from him.

Bringing closer one of the towels he’d taken from the supermarket and a bottle of water in his backpack, David undid the makeshift bandages on Dwight’s forearms with care not to hurt him more than necessary.

The cuts on his forearms looked painful, the smaller man’s small whimper of pain sending a pang of guilt right through David’s chest.

“If only I’d managed to react sooner Dwight wouldn’t be ‘urt right now,” he thought to himself. He’d wanted to promise he would protect, but he’d already failed at it. He was now  at risk of becoming one of those. No, it’s not the time to think about that. “Make the most of this moment.”

Carefully taking his wrist, David had Dwight lifting his arm to the side a bit before opening the bottle of water and pouring some on his arm to clean the blood and saliva remains of that monster. They were able to see how the bleeding had become slower, which they didn’t know anymore whether it was a good thing or not, but at least it’d make things easier for them. David apologized before dabbing the small towel at Dwight’s arm to dry it, who closed his eyes and pressed his own lips together not to whine when he had to do it over the actual wound.

It looked terrible. His flesh was torn open on his forearms, but he’d been lucky enough and the deep cuts were mostly on the sides instead of the inner part. That was the only thing that kept him from bleeding out.

“I’m sorry love, I know it ‘urts but I ‘ave to do this, ‘kay?” he sighed.

Dwight nodded as a response, leaning back completely against him to rest.

Being called that way made Dwight feel a bit confused, but it wasn’t like he was going to complain about it. He’d been called that way a thousand times by Claudette, but hearing that coming from David gave him a completely different feeling. It was more personal, warmer, if he was honest it even made him somewhat upset -why did he have to do that now? When it wasn’t worth it anymore? Whatever. He’d take as many little ‘victories’ as he could while he was still alive.

“Will ye ever stop overthinkin’?” David asked, having already put gauze over his wounds, bandaged one of his forearms, and continued to clean the wound on the other hand while Dwight contemplated the meaning of one word.

David knew perfectly well what he was thinking about, having spent so much time together before that day. Dwight had never told Claudette or Quentin of the few times he’d met David outside of the Arcade and he was always nervous when he met David in there because he didn’t want him to mention anything about it, knowing how much he loved to tease him he was afraid he’d mention something about the last time they saw each other. Either way, Dwight was always somewhat wary of David’s problems with anger, a wariness that was slowly wearing off because of being able to see him trying his hardest to control himself and David knew that it wasn’t okay; even having apologized because of pushing him some time ago at the toilets.

On the other hand, David had kept quiet about all of it too. With his tough appearance, he didn’t want anyone else to know what he was up to and he knew that being seen with Dwight would ruin his reputation. That hadn’t stopped him from getting closer, but always doing it in a way he could make sure the surroundings were safe so no one he knew would recognize them.

“...there, done.”

The same procedure had been repeated on his other arm: cleaning, drying, covering, and bandaging. That would control infections and keep bleeding to a minimum now that his wounds had been taken care of properly.

That was when Dwight decided to push his own luck. He knew he was going to die soon enough and he didn’t want to do it with more regrets even if he was already upset about it being too late now.

Turning so his side would be against David instead of his back; he let one of his legs lean over the other man’s, still bent, and cupped his cheek to coax him to move closer which he did almost like a natural reaction so Dwight could peck a soft kiss on his cheek.

“...thank you for everything,” he whispered, trying to keep calm but feeling that typical knot in his stomach because of anxiety.

That gesture surprised David, who closed his eyes to enjoy those few seconds that he wished could last for a longer time.

Dwight let his hand slide down his neck to rest it against his chest, the other man placing his hand on his shoulder before returning the kiss on his cheekbone right underneath his eye; his hand doing the opposite and sliding up to the side of Dwight’s neck to keep him in place and caress his cheek with his thumb. He then leant his forehead against the other man’s and stared into his eyes, but Dwight couldn’t bring himself to return the stare and kept his own lowered, looking at his lips instead.

However, before David could say anything, the ringing of the timers going off at the market took both of them out of their shared little trance.

“...if both of us make it to the buildin’, we ‘ave some talkin’ to do.”

With a soft but loud couple of pats on Dwight’s cheek, David stood back up and helped him do the same; handing him his backpack before grabbing his own bag and taking his hand to get ready to head out of that place. Things seemed to be alright until they heard the sudden shattering noises from outside the pharmacy and a shotgun along with screaming from a few people.

Dwight and David stared at each other for a few seconds before they heard shooting again and Bill’s yells to get everyone moving.

“Let’s go!”


	7. Escaping Walmart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They escape from Walmart.
> 
> Took me a while........ but this time I couldn't help it and I made it happen hjdks i DIE
> 
> calmspirited, i smooch you for correcting it like usual i love u and u make this possible bc i wouldnt post it because of emBARRASSMENT AT MISTAKES

“Move it!” Bill yelled, shotgun up and aiming at the monsters that had broken through the glass displays, knocking over the barricades of products and shelves that they thought would work as a wall and protect them from the monsters outside. “They’re already chewin’ on some of us, **move it damn it!** ”

They had most likely heard the noise the timers made and the steps of everyone running to the entrance, but no one had considered any of it. Planning things on the go could have awful consequences because of the lack of time.

David and Dwight were observing from the distance, considering what they should do.

“‘old my shirt, luv. I need t’make sure yer ‘ere,” David whispered as he stopped holding Dwight’s hand. He took his gun and aimed at the monsters. One of them was standing, staring at the group of five that were slowly stepping backwards to try to get away, and it didn't seem to be having a reaction towards them moving away. Two others were feeding from the corpses of the ones that didn’t want to go with them, as well as a motionless monster laying on the floor, half of its head was gone, Bill having blown it off with a shot.

Dwight obeyed David, he was -or used to be- part of the military after all and he knew that it was best to listen to him rather than fight back against his orders. He was the one with the gun and good aim, so he was safest by his side.

One of the people on the bigger group was getting visibly upset, they were shaking and their face was completely sweaty and drained of color, and Bill had realized soon enough that he had to get through to them or else risk having a breakdown of their group.

“If you wanna live, ya better not run,” he commanded. But there was something he usually forgot -he wasn’t really in charge of anyone in there and no one was trained for these situations. The person he was talking to wasn’t listening to him at all, their eyes completely fixated on the monster. “Listen to me -don’t look at them, don’t make any sudden mov--”

Before he could finish his sentence, that person screamed in terror and ran away, trying to sprint away so fast that they kept on tripping on their own feet and falling down, colliding against everything in their way and that was exactly what Bill didn’t want to happen. The monster that was staring at them roared and ran past the group that was standing still to chase that person, rushing past them all in its pursuit for more adrenalized prey.

It was a good thing Bill knew how to keep his cool, lifting an arm to make sure the others wouldn’t make the same mistake, making sure that they would instead stay with him and the rest of the group. He didn’t even use his gun to try to protect him, knowing that it’d attract the attention of the other monsters in the building, and and because of that idea, they managed to remain undetected and unnoticed.

“...it didn’t attack them?” Dwight asked almost to himself, getting a soft snort from David as a reply.

David had kept his eyes on Bill all the time, observing what he was doing and even waiting to be bossed around, but that wasn’t the military anymore. Everyone had to make their own choices, and running away while making tons of noise seemed to be the worst one so far, even if standing still was just as stupid. There wasn’t really a way to avoid the chase and inevitable death. Only fighting back would save yourself.

The group began to move away, but the combined noise the person who had ran away and the monster were making was attracting the attention of the other monsters. They stood up and slowly moved towards them, getting ready to pounce on them, as another loud scream from that person was heard in the distance, then sudden silence after a loud cracking noise.

The horror on the group’s face was what made Dwight’s instinct kick in - _he had to do something to protect them, to lead them to safety._ He caught himself staring at his forearms, even if bandaged he knew that his wounds were right underneath it and they hadn’t been caused only by scratches, but because of the monster’s sharp teeth. Monsters that pretty much acted like _zombies_ , and he’d seen other humans transforming into them after being attacked.

Now it was his time to make sure the others wouldn’t have to suffer the same fate and since he was already infected, even if only David knew, he would be the best target he could for them.

 _“Cover me,”_ he said as he let David’s shirt go.

“Dwight, what’re ye doin’!?”

David wasn’t able to stop Dwight, feeling a pang of ache in his stomach as he saw Dwight sprinting away between him and the others; setting off the timer that was still hanging from his neck which made the monsters instantly shift their attention to him.

Now all eyes were completely set on Dwight.

“The entrance is blocked, go to the backdoor!” he yelled, the two monsters not wasting a second to run towards him.

“Ya heard him, go!” Bill yelled, taking a quick look at David to see him ready to shoot at the monsters that dared to get too close to Dwight. He had to make sure that his efforts -or death- weren’t in vain, so Bill guided everyone away from the spot by sneaking through the aisles while making the least noise they could.

Meanwhile, David was waiting for Dwight to run past his hiding spot. He wanted to waste the least bullets he could for now, so the handy katana he’d grabbed from one of the aisles would work. That was one of the only moments where he was glad he’d have to kill someone before -he’d never forget the shock, the hesitation, the guilt and nausea in your body after having to do something like that while he was serving. Now he could use this to his advantage and even in an easier way because those weren’t humans. They were _monsters_ that were trying to harm them… and that had already harmed Dwight.

His face contorted into anger. _Rage_. There was nothing he could do for Dwight anymore apart of trying to keep him alive until he became one of them and he was going to make sure he wouldn’t have to suffer more than he already was.

David waited until Dwight ran past the aisle he was hiding in until he swung with all of his might when he heard the approaching heavy steps of the faster monster, getting a clean cut of its neck. The body kept on moving ahead on its own for a couple seconds before collapsing while the head rolled away in a different direction, somehow still alive and making noises, but to David that was the last thing to worry about after seeing the second monster dash forwards and follow in pursuit of the smaller male.

* * *

The other group was doing reasonably alright, no monsters to bother them but they still rushed towards the emergency exit even if leaving the other two behind was killing Bill inside. They followed the signs to the exit and pushed the doors open, some sitting down and others leaning against the wall to catch their breath… until the woman screamed and rushed to the doors, but it was too late for whatever it was that evoked such a reaction, because the doors were already closed.

_“My child!”_

* * *

A loud alarm going off in the entire building made the two men still inside flinch, nearly coming to a halt to look around and find out whatever the hell was going on until they realized the others had opened the exit.

“Just leave me behind!” Dwight yelled, having realized how David was chasing both of them when he’d turned his head around to see how close the monster was to him. It wasn’t much faster than a normal person, but it didn’t seem to get tired so it was catching up to him quickly. “The alarm! It’ll attract more of them!”

However, David wasn’t paying attention to him at all. The alarm was loud and the added rage was almost blinding him, making him become so desperate he did something he knew he shouldn’t have done in that situation. He took the gun out and aimed at the monster without considering he was running so couldn’t aim properly, but that didn’t stop him, shooting a couple of times to try halt the monster’s advances.

The first bullet hit its arm but the second hit and ricocheted right on a shelf next to Dwight, which made him scream and cower, harshly tripping to the floor and losing his glasses when they slipped and clattered to the ground off his face. They had fallen a couple feet in front of him, but that was more than enough for him to not be able to find them again, paired with the deafening and disorienting loud noise of the shot had left him feeling dizzy and a constant beeping noise in his ear.

It wasn’t like he would have even had enough time to grab them, the monster having already jumped on top of him to bite his shoulder, but luckily enough for him David’s jacket protected him from actual damage before David tackled it away and rolled with it to try to get on top of it and off of Dwight.

Dwight was completely lost at that moment, barely able to hear anything and only seeing two blurry spots moving around the floor until one of them was on top of the other.

“...David!”

There was no answer. The only sounds the other man was making were of effort, not having time or the will to reply to him. After a few long seconds, one of the blurry and incomprehensible figures stood up and ran towards Dwight, grabbing his arms and forcing him to stand up.

“David!!” Dwight yelled as he cowered, thankfully not being given enough time to get too upset, as he was busy helping David along and shoving his newly found glasses back onto their perch on his nose hastily. He readjusted them and looked at him, seeing that David was covered in blood and bits of things all over his knuckles and forearms that Dwight didn’t think he wanted to know what they were. Taking a quick look at the place where they’d fought, he spotted the remains of the monster -a body with twitching limbs and with its face beaten into a bloody pulp, a hammer lying inside the skull as if it was the right container to keep it in.

The sight made him instantly gag, bending over and to the side not to vomit on the bigger male. At any other moment, in any other situation, he would have been scared. But now, to him, it meant he was safe with him. He trusted David to never hurt him in such a way.

“...ye know I ‘ad to do it or else,” David whispered, holding him to prevent him from falling to the floor. There was no time for any of this.

“...did it bite you?”

The question made both of them fall quiet. The delivery boy couldn’t look at him, as he was too scared of the answer and the silence and momentary stop of David’s breathing only made him think of the worst outcome.

“We ‘ave to run, Dwight, there’s no time for this!” he yelled, trying to drag Dwight away from the spot, but Dwight made a sharp movement with his shoulders to set himself free from his hold. He heard a grunt from the other man, who had pulled back quickly, and looked right into his eyes.

**_“DID IT BITE YOU!?”_ **

Staring at each other quietly, David frowned and looked away, listening to Dwight’s loud breathing for a moment before showing him his hand.

 _“N-no, please no,”_ he stuttered, approaching him again and taking his hand while both of his own trembled.

There was a bite mark on his left hand, it wasn’t bleeding that much because David had managed to set himself free fast enough by breaking the monster’s jaw but it had been hard enough to break into his skin.

Pulling his hand away, David pulled Dwight into an embrace and rested his lips against his ear; caressing the hair on the back of his head and looking around to make sure they’d be fine.

“It was goin’ to ‘appen sooner or later and I’d rather ‘ave it be because I protected ye. We ‘ave to go, _now._ ”

There was nothing he could say or do anymore. He was infected, David was infected, the rest would begin falling one by one at some point, too. That was it, that was how the world ended. He wished he could just drop dead at that moment, but David was having none of it.

“Listen t’me,” David said, separating from Dwight by gently pushing him away with his hands on both of his shoulders. “If we ‘ave to die, let’s die peacefully. Let’s go to the buildin’, lock ourselves in an apartment and t-”

Dwight didn’t care about whatever he was saying. He cared so little that he’d pushed both of his hands away and wrapped both of his arms around his neck, pulling him closer to press their lips together in a desperate kiss.

David was left speechless, eyes widened at the suddenness of the gesture, not knowing what to do with his hands so they were just somewhat lifted at each side of the other man. It was the salty taste of Dwight’s lips what made him realize he was just standing there like an idiot.

Just an hour ago they were hanging out together, having fun, becoming closer to each other but both of them keeping a respectful distance; and now they were in a countdown to death if they weren’t brutally murdered before they starved or were killed by other people trying to survive .

Just an hour to lose everything -their families, friends, everything they owned, all the time they yet had to spend together, their future, their entire lives.

Just an hour to realize that nothing meant anything anymore.

Maybe that was the reason why Dwight had done something he’d always been scared to do before. A rejection didn’t mean anything anymore, but living the small bit of your life that was left with regrets would crash anyone down.

Coming back to his senses when Dwight pulled away, David found himself tearing up too, and without giving it any second thoughts he slipped his hands between the smaller man’s arms to cup his cheeks and pull him closer again for a second kiss, a third and a fourth that lasted for a longer time; hungry, sloppy, pushing Dwight against one of the shelves to press his own body against the other male’s whose hands were holding onto his waist now; both of them crying and not wanting to pull back until they had to breathe.

They remained quiet for a moment, mouths opened to breathe and lips still touching, David’s hands sliding down from Dwight’s cheeks to the sides of his neck.

“...we ‘ave to go.”

“...alright.”

* * *

“Lower the gun, kid!” Bill yelled, grunting on the floor. The woman had hit him with her weapon on his damaged knee, managing to cause so much pain to him that he’d accidentally dropped the gun he was wielding.

Now she was the one wielding it and she was aiming at everyone, trying to keep them away because she wanted to go back inside for her child. Her back was pressed against the door and she was pushing as hard as she could, logic not applying to her at that moment since the doors opened the other way.

“If ya go back inside on your own ya won’t be able to do anything!”

“If she wants to go back inside and die then let her!” One of the random people with them wasn’t having any of it; he just wanted her to leave so they could leave to a safer place. “That kid is most likely dead either way!”

That seemed to trigger something inside her that made her completely snap. She lifted the gun and aimed at him, the guy with black hair, and gave a step towards him; everyone giving a step back and yelling at her to lower the gun.

“That’s what you think?! You’re going to be the dead on-”

**Bang.**

The door behind her busted open, forcing her to shoot and pushing her down to the floor. Everyone was screaming, but one of the screams sounded distinctly gagged and gurgly.

David and Dwight, meanwhile, had made it out and had almost jumped back inside at the sound of the shotgun, David putting a hand in front of Dwight to push him behind him.

“What the ‘ell is goin’ on?!”

The first thing everyone did when David yelled was realize they hadn’t been shot, looking down at their bodies and then around to see who’d been the unlucky one…

**“NO!!”**

The woman crawled towards her husband, who was lying on the floor with half of his head gone. His brain was scattered all over the floor along with a trail of blood, that was forming a puddle on the spot he was lying at.

She screamed, cried, kicked her legs without knowing what to do; looking at everyone else with eyes so widened they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. She couldn’t even talk, being in such a shock she could barely breathe.

No one apart from Bill or David dared to look, but none of both could do anything for her.

Even less when the last thing she was able to do was aiming at her own head with the shotgun and pulling the trigger without hesitation.

The two men had yelled at her to stop when they’d found out what she was going to do, David even trying to rush closer to her, but it had been too late and now David was covered in even more blood… and brains, now.

“O-oh, fuck, oh fuck,” David whined, feeling like he was about to vomit.

“Less whinin’ and more movin’, soldier!” Bill complained, stretching his arm so David would help him stand up; which he did but not before getting the shotgun again to give it to Bill.

With so much blood on his hands it was impossible to find out he’d been bitten, too.

The door was still a bit opened and Dwight heard little but fast steps towards it.

_It couldn’t be._

As soon as he saw the little girl step outside Dwight blocked her view and picked her up, keeping her face against his chest.

“I heard mommy crying, where is she?” She asked in almost a whisper, already crying in fear because of the way she’d heard her screaming.

“...mommy and daddy had to run to find a safe house, okay?” he replied, keeping his hand on the back of her head so she couldn’t look around. “They told us to protect you meanwhile.”

The child was so scared she didn’t complain about it, wrapping her arms around him and closing her eyes since she just wanted to be able to be in some place where they wouldn’t be in danger anymore.

“Just keep your eyes closed and when we’re safe again you can open them, okay? Did you pick a toy like your mom said?”

“Mhm,” she nodded and did as she was told, showing Dwight the toy by shaking it between their bodies but still keeping her eyes closed and gaze lowered.

“Good girl, u-uh… don’t worry about anything now, I’ll take care of you.”

Bill was looking around, seeing how other monsters were being attracted to the sound of the alarm so if they were lucky enough they’d be ignored. That was it, it was time to leave.

“David and… you, the one with the long hair.”

“Leandro,” he said, keeping his eyes completely set on the old man since he didn’t want to see the gruesome scene right next to them.

“Leandro. You two look stronger, carry their backpacks.”

Knowing that he didn’t want to look at them, David grabbed the heaviest bag and handed it to Leandro. He had to be the one aiming at the monsters to protect them after all, and after looking at Dwight he’d realized that now he had to take care of two people.

“And you, the one that made her shoot,” Bill hissed, none of them caring enough to know each other’s names, “I’m the only one who knows how to use the shotgun so help me walk.”

The guy with black hair couldn’t complain at all, knowing he’d fucked up and lowered their chances of survival, so he’d just agree on helping him by having one of his arms around him and help him limp around.

“Just a few more streets.”

* * *

Claudette stared at the phone. Nothing yet. It made her feel guilty about being in a safe place. She couldn’t deal with it. Ace had realized it and had somehow managed to get them all to play card games with him after they had checked everything was safe and how to make food last the longest. as there was nothing much they could do after all.

They had managed to more or less go through the language barrier thanks to the translators on the Internet, so while everything still worked they would be alright.

At least _they_ would.


	8. Arriving to the building

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I took a break because I wasn't feeling good, now I'm confident to go on. I'm not entirely sure if anyone is still following the story but hey! A chapter is up. Next one will most likely just be Kingfield.
> 
> Thanks for correcting the first half to fierceathlete on tumblr!  
> If you find mistakes... it's because it's the half that I tried to fix myself. Going to be uploading stuff without corrections from english-speaking friends from now on so I just concentrate on writing instead of spending more time editing and editing.

"Do ye need me to carry the child?"

"You can't aim and carry her at the same time."

"I'd shoot, carry 'er and carry ye if it was necessary!"

David's familiar hearty chuckle made the other ones in the group give him a weird stare, not knowing what the hell he was laughing about - more like how he could be laughing in that situation.

With a bite on his hand and scratches all over Dwight's forearms? He had nothing else to lose. Not to mention how David could be a pretty easy-going kind of guy when he felt confident. Monsters all around the place? No mither, as he would say. He had already beaten one to death with a hammer and he would do it again.

Every time David laughed in a dire situation, Dwight managed to calm down a little bit. It would be fine, it was like a guarantee of safety, knowing they'd make it to the building no matter what - and talking about buildings, there it was. It wasn't too tall but it looked modern enough that the door at the entrance would be strong enough for the monsters to be unable to break through. Not easily, at least. Or that was what it looked like because they were already at the door and they didn't seem to be able to break the iron door down.

Bill lifted a hand and David stopped walking, which made everyone else do the same thing.

"How are we going to get in?" the black haired man asked, staring at a couple monsters right at the entrance.

"The rest probably ran to Walmart, I can still hear the alarm."

"Aren't they supposed to die if ye blow their brains out? We've already killed three of 'em"

"That's it, then. You barely used the gun, we should still have enough to do it. Hey, hey..." Dwight cooed to the little girl in his arms, looking down so she'd look back at him. "We're going to make a loud noise. Put your hands on your ears, okay?"

She nodded without saying anything, covering her ears and pressing her face against his chest again.

David and Bill looked at each other and nodded, the older man standing behind with his shotgun ready just in case. David had more than enough time to aim at one of the monsters' head, slowly pulling the trigger to make sure he wouldn't miss. He hit his target, no sweat.

The other monster looked way more like a human being, except for the dead stare it gave them when it heard the bang. Its steps were clumsier; one of its ankles were broken and it was trying not to trip over its own guts, which were hanging out of his stomach. There was no mercy for that one either, though it was hard because of how more human it looked.

David shot its head... but it didn't die.

It stumbled. Its head tilted back from the force of the bullet yet it kept on hobbling towards them with a broken skull and part of its brain hanging from the back of its head. 

The little girl in Dwight's arms began sobbing. Dwight gently bounced her in his arms and quietly shushed her as if it'd calm her down but it didn't work. Her crying became louder, which made Dwight look at the other men with confusion. The monster stood still for a moment, listening. They were still confused because it hadn't looked at them again yet.

"There's no time for this bullshit," Bill grunted as he pat David on the shoulder. All of them looked at him did as he left the black haired man's side and walked past the confused monster without batting an eye. Bill had seen the pool of blood it was leaving underneath itself so just a push with a hand was enough to make the strangely weak monster slip down to the floor. He then took his keys out to open the door.

"Damn it Bill, ye still got the biggest balls I've ever seen," he snorted, putting a hand on Dwight's back to make sure he would walk next to him. It was just a precaution in case the monster decided to attack.

"Yeah, yoy wish you had actually seen ‘em, right King?"

That kind of made David choke again. Alright, it was obvious he was close to Dwight and he knew what Bill probably thought about that, but he knew that it was just light-hearted jokes.

"Nah, too saggy," he laughed as Bill held the door opened for them to get inside. "But now, seriously. 'ow comes this one doesn't attack us like the rest?"

"I don't know but don't question it. Mother Nature is insane."

The creature stared at them as they walked past it, arching its back and stretching his arm to try to grab them but there was nothing it could do so it just hissed and coughed.

_ “...help me.” _

Dwight stopped walking and looked behind at the monster.  _ Did it just talk? _

“David?” he whispered, turning around to look at the monster on the floor. “Did you hear that?”

“Hm?”

Turning around to check the ‘person’ on the floor, David remained quiet for a few seconds. The monster was staring at them, eyes wide opened as it squirmed on the floor with a hand reaching out for them.

“ ‘ear what?”

“I heard it asking for  _ help _ ”

“...impossible”

“I’m telling you, I heard-- _ what are you looking at? _ ”

David’s gaze was on Dwight’s wounds. Was that the reason why he might have heard anything? Not because of some kind of… ‘zombie superpowers’, if that was any way to explain all of the stuff that was going on. Was he simply beginning to become delirious?

“...don’t do that,” Dwight whispered. “I… I’m still fine. I think I--”

“You two, come here!”

Bill’s voice made them realize they were slowing everyone down.

“It might ‘ave just been yer imagination,” he shook his head. “Lets just go inside, a’ight?”

“...okay.”

When they were all in, Bill closed the door and they got further into the building; Dwight left the child on the floor and softly pushed her so she'd stay with the other men. She didn't waste a second and ran to Bill and held onto his leg, making him look at her and then up at Dwight. He had stayed behind and grabbed David by his sleeve to make him turn around. The look on Dwight’s face was making Bill feel like something was wrong.

"Let’s keep moving, you two," he said softly so the other two men with them would help him carry the stuff inside. "We'll carry the stuff to the first floor and ya will help me find a way to keep our corridor safe."

Leandro had seen the other two staying behind but before he could say anything about it, Bill tugged on his shirt to make him pay attention. He then carefully took the child's hand to make sure she still felt protected. 

David turned around, looking down at Dwight. Both of them were distressed about their upcoming future -a short one, most likely.

"What are we gonna do now?" Dwight whispered so his voice wouldn't crack. "We can't stay here, we'll put everyone at risk!"

"No, no, listen to me." The other man grabbed Dwight by his shoulders, which made him whine. Right, the bite. "Fuck, sorry luv." 

David’s hands slowly slid down Dwight’s arms, caressing him but being mindful of the wounds on his forearms. He soon took his hands and stepped forward to be closer to him. Dwight's head lowered so David could press his lips against the top of it.

"We made it 'ere and I'm not willin' to make ye run and suffer until yer dead. I told ye, if we 'ave to die it'll be as peaceful as possible."

David let go of his hands to put one on the back of his neck, pulling his head closer to peck a kiss on his forehead before letting him go. He then turned around to catch Bill’s attention, yelling his name and making him turn his head around to look back at him. “We need to talk. Now.”

Whenever he behaved like that, Bill felt a bit wary of whatever he was about to say. Those words were usually spoken with a threatening demeanor, so hearing them in such a cold way…he didn’t know what to expect.

“Tell me, King,” Bill said, letting the hand of the little girl go and gently patting her back so she’d follow Leandro inside without complaining. “Come on in, ya know there’s no time to be wasting on talking right now.”

_ There was something wrong and he didn’t want to acknowledge it.  _ Not when it was about one of his ‘soldiers’.

“No, we can’t go inside,” David sighed, approaching Bill and putting a hand on Dwight’s back so he’d stand next to him. “Not with ye, at least. We… we got--”

“Don’t say it.”

Hearing those words coming from Bill left David speechless for a moment.

“I know. I’m old but I’m not stupid. I’ve seen the bandage, David.” Bill kept his voice low to make sure to keep his emotions inside. He’d never cried in front of anyone, he knew that during wars they could lose soldiers  _ but that wasn’t war _ . He wasn’t supposed to lose anyone anymore and David was one of his closest friends after having fought back to back with him.

“...and ye still let us come here.”

“I’d never leave a soldier behind.”

Both of them remained quiet, staring at each other, tension building up at how hard it was for them to show any kind of softer affection towards one another; but this time Bill was the one taking the first step. He approached David, who was just slightly taller than him, and tightly wrapped one of his arms around his shoulders and another around his back, pulling him into an embrace that David returned exactly the same way. Short but powerful and full of emotion.

It lasted just a few seconds, Bill giving a couple pats on his back before they separated.

“You both can stay on the last floor. There’s an apartment where a young couple lived with a couple kids. They probably have some stuff you can entertain yourselves with. And take the stuff you got from Walmart, you might need it.”

Both of the younger men nodded, David taking a hold of his bag and being the first one to begin walking upstairs. Dwight was about to follow but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

“Hold on a second, son.”

Was Bill talking to him? Why? The young delivery man was somewhat concerned about what he wanted, but he wasn’t just going to leave him hanging. Bill was important to David so whatever he had to say he’d listen.

“I doubt you’ve ever been in a situation like this before… I must say you’re much braver than I expected. And because of you, all of us could make it out alive, so thank you. I won’t forget this,” he nodded, squeezing the younger man’s shoulder. “It was a pleasure meetin’ ya”.

The veteran really was proud of him, it was easy to notice by the shine in his eyes. It made him somewhat sad to lose a man that had so much potential, a man who he would have liked to see what he was capable of, but most importantly: a life.

If there was something no one could fight, it was  **death** . Sure, sometimes you could do everything possible to try not to die or keep someone alive but when your time has come at the hands of the unknown, there’s nothing you can do.

His support made Dwight get a small sense of pride. He’d finally done something useful, he’d been able to help others. It had always been something he’d wanted to do. Changing the world to something better had been a childhood dream but due to his life, relationships, because of everything around him, he’d ended up losing the will to try; so this small victory was bittersweet. He  _ knew _ he could keep on doing all he could for everyone else, but now the countdown to his death was ticking away.

From grief to acceptance in the blink of an eye.

“It was my pleasure, sir.”

“Bill.”

“...Bill.”

Dwight put his arm around Bill’s back, the other man putting one around his shoulder to be helped to go upstairs. Bill usually wouldn’t let others help him like this, thinking he could do everything on his own, but he wasn’t stupid enough to not accept a defeat. After that hit on his knee he’d been having trouble to move.

It was a quiet way upstairs, just with a small whisper of warning when they stumbled, the younger man leaving the other at the door. Before Dwight could move away from him, Bill pulled him into a hug too, tight but very short, and stepped away. “Their keys should be under the pot next to their door. A stupid place to hide ‘em, but very convenient for emergencies.”

Nodding, Dwight waited for him to walk down the corridor before closing the door, then took a deep breath. That was it. There was nothing else to do but go upstairs and meet David before they both waited for the inevitable.


	9. We've got some talking to do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwight and David get in an apartment to lock themselves in. They realize they have talking to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to cut that chapter there because I realized I was taking too long to upload and I didn't want for it to look like I stopped writing the AU. I'm not sure about who follows infectedbydaylight's blog on Tumblr so my first option is to post fast with an ok amount of text!
> 
> It gets slightly, only SLIGHTLY nsfwish at the end. But it's okay, just soft shit.
> 
> So yes, expect more Dwight and David being close on the next chapter. What can I say? I just wanted to write some kingfield material.
> 
> Sorry about mistakes, I decided to just being going on and posting the chapters without beta-reading. I just want to have fun and not worry, hopefully it'll be easy to read!

The uncomfortable silence on the halls was only interrupted by the sound of every step they took towards their death home. They were slow, heavy, the small drags on the floor making them realize how none of them was sure about this.

"...the key is under the pot," Dwight whispered, almost scared to make a loud noise again.

A nod and a little snort was the only reply he got from the other man, who bent over to move the pot and retrieve the key. Slowly approaching Dwight, he took his hand and remained close, then put the key on it.

"...ye open the door. Y'know. Gotta make sure it's safe inside." This time, Dwight was the one nodding.

Moving away from him was harder than he expected, and David only made it harder because of the way the hold on his hand tightened instead of letting go. They didn't want to go in. It meant they had accepted their fate, it was painful knowing that one of them would have to see the other one die... and help them by killing them. _What would they do afterwards?_

"...you know this is the only way everyone will be safer."

"...doesn't mean it 'urts any less."

Truth hurts.

As Dwight put the key in the door David moved in front of him to act as a shield from whatever was inside, but as they slowly pushed it open and peeked inside they realized there didn't seem to be anyone in there. There weren't any signs of any monster having broken into the house -or of anyone having mutated into one in it- and it was way too quiet for people to be inside.

"Cover my back as I check out inside the rooms," David said as he held the gun with a firm grip from both of his hands in front of himself, arms stretched and always aiming.

Both of them left their bags at the entrance, Dwight taking his baseball bat with him to make sure he'd be able to help if it was necessary. Back to back, they slowly sneaked inside, checking on every corner for corpses, monsters or whatever might be of interest to them, but the only thing they found was a pool of blood that someone had stepped on. It was like they had dragged something to a room before leaving to a different one.

Looking at each other, they nodded and moved to the room where they had dragged something -or someone- first, since it was the closest to the exit. The trail of blood ended at the window, that was still open, and a sense of morbid curiosity washed over them. They approached the window with careful step, avoiding to walk on the blood, and stood there for a moment. David could feel Dwight's hand gripping his forearm, eyes set on the window but too scared to look down. The british man could feel it, so instead of peeking he closed the window and lowered the blinds.

"I don't think that's a good idea," he whispered as he turned around and engulfed the smaller man in an embrace, making him walk backwards as he made his way out of the room. "Whatever ye do, don't look. There might be somethin' ye don't want to be thinkin' of later." It earned yet another nod from him, which was killing David. The way Dwight barely talked was strange and the only reason was what they had to expect from the near future. He didn't want their last minutes, hours -days?- to be like that. "Lets check on the other room. Stay be'ind me."

The way David was acting didn't mean he was hurting any less. Having been at war, death was seen from a different perspective. At some point, after being around death and hunger for long periods of time, you had enough time to get accustomed to it and come to terms with a possible impending doom. All Dwight needed was to come to terms with it, which was something easier said than done.

Tension grew higher the closer they got to the room that the footsteps lead to, their breathing deep and loud, only interrupted when they needed to swallow; a small snort escaping through their nose right after. The door was opened by a crack, a dim yellow light barely lighting up the corridor. Dwight put a hand on David's chest from behind so he would stop moving. "Aim," he whispered, stepping in front of him but still a couple feet away from the door. Lifting the bat with both hands, he slowly pushed the door, hearing the sound of David cocking his gun behind him... but there was no need to shoot.  _Not again._

A man and a woman, most likely the parents of the child they had thrown out of the window, were lying down on the bed; one lying on top of the other one that was sitting and leaning against the wall with his head lolling to the side. There was a splash of blood on the wall, all over them and on the sheets. The cause? The gun the man was barely holding onto anymore. Trully a tragic sight.

Dwight couldn't take his eyes away from the scene. Everything that had happened that night so far, from the beginning, was too much to take. He even forgot to breathe for a moment.

"Ye shouldn't be seein' this," the other man whispered, grabbing Dwight by his shoulder and gently pulling to try to make him turn around, but Dwight shook him off and gave a step forwards.

"...is this what is to be expected from us?" he asked, his voice shaky.

David was left speechless. It didn't seem like such a bad idea, did it? Ending it all before they could make things worse for everyone else -and not only that. What if they could still think while being one of those? What if they could still hold onto feelings, onto the past? If they were moving, it meant they weren't fully dead. All that happened was that they didn't seem to be capable of controlling themselves, and Dwight had said he'd heard one talking. That really was fucking with him at that moment.

"No. No, it's not," David replied, giving turning Dwight around another chance. That time there was no opposition to it.

"Then what is--" he was interrupted by David cupping his cheek, pressing his thumb against his lips.

"I don't know. I don't care. We'll deal with it when the time comes, a'ight? Go to the livin' room, I'll get rid of these two. We 'ave to stay in this 'ouse now." Feeling Dwight sink into his touch made him feel like he was doing something right, which was the truth. Dwight put his hand over David's, leaving the bat on the floor since they wouldn't really need it anymore.

"I'll help you."

"Ye don't 'ave to."

"I want to."

Taking the hand Dwight had over his own, David got a bit closer and pecked a kiss on his forehead before tugging his hand to go inside the room and get the work done.

"I grab 'em by the shoulders, ye grab their legs."

It was hard work to carry dead weight across the room, not only taking a physical toll on them but also mental. Steps and low grunts, the rubbing of fabric, a window opening... and loud bone cracks when the first corpse hit the pavement.

Both of them flinched, looking in each other's direction but without really looking at their faces. Their thoughts were the same: imagining having to do it to the other one was devastating. David imagined himself carrying Dwight's corpse in his arms, bridal style, but as soon as he reached the window just breaking down and falling on his knees to hold him close, pressing his face into his chest, and if that would kill him, he wouldn't fight back. Dwight couldn't imagine himself carrying David. He was a heavy man already, so him as a dead weight would be impossible. He could try to pull him by his arms or legs, to break him into pieces, but he wouldn't be able to degrade him in such a way. Instead, he'd lie down next to him, move his arm over himself to pretend he was still there and holding him; wrapping his arms around him underneath his jacket, but it wouldn't be as warm as usual.

Dwight broke out of it by quickly rubbing his face with both hands, then looked for David. He was leaning against a wall with a hand, using the other to rub right above his eyebrows and pinch the skin between them, head lowered, clearly fighting against his thoughts too. Seeing the bigger man so distressed was heart-breaking. He had to do something.

"Hey," he whispered, moving closer to David and placing both hands on his waist, bending his knees a but to be underneath him and be able to see his face.

But David didn't want to talk.

He suddenly wrapped both of his arms around him, one around his waist and the other over his shoulders, pulling him into a tight embrace and pressing Dwight's head into him.

 _"I'm so sorry, I couldn't protect ye, I'm sorry,"_ he whispered, holding back his tears. Being a ball of strong emotions, David had it easier to let them out. It also meant all of the others, if overwhelming, would spill out too -but somehow, they mostly came out as anger.

"No, no David, listen to me," he whispered, his tone as soothing as possible as he got himself free from his tight hold, both of the taller man's hands now on his shoulders. He cupped David's cheeks with both hands, guiding his face towards his own to lean their foreheads together, his pointy long nose brushing against David's crooked nose. "None of this is your fault. You weren't supposed to know she would hurt me... and then you gave your life to protect me."

Dwight slid his hands down David's neck, caressing all the way down from his shoulders to his hands. His touch had always been something that helped him stay under control, his warmth and support playing a big part on not doing stupid things.

Carefully taking his hands, Dwight moved them away from his shoulders to put them between them. The bandage on his hand was covering the bite wound was soaked in blood -not only his own, but the blood of monsters and that person that shot themselves before. Usually David would have complained against the claims of having helped him, but he knew Dwight was just as stubborn as he was. Maybe he hadn't been able to react fast enough that first time, but right now he was still alive and that meant something.

"Let's... not think. Let's get rid of this corpse, turn the matress around and clean the blood," he whispered. "Let's make this our home for however long we have." 

There was no point anymore. All the chaos around them meant nothing. To two people with a death sentence, only their present mattered -the ones around them, the last things they would say or do... it had to mean something.

"...ye know what were my plans for this 'oliday?"

A strange reply for what he'd just told him, but he'd go along with it.

"What were they?"

"I..." There was a moment of silence, hesitation forming on David's mind because of considering whether he would sound like a creep or not. They had known each other for quite a long time already though. It shouldn't be a problem. "...I was hopin' to meet ye at the Arcade, make ye stop bein' nervous t'be around me and then sneak out with ye for dinner," he whispered, moving his hands away from Dwight's hold to gently put his fingertips on his jaw and make him keep his gaze lifted. "It would 'ave been great to be able to take ye on an improvised trip, just a couple 'ours away, lie down on the beach, find somewhere to sleep, I uh... never planned so far. Didn't think ye'd come," he snorted, but it didn't hide the hint of sadness in his voice.

What he was saying made Dwight realize how stupid he'd been before.  **Insecurities.** They played a big part on his life. What would have happened if he'd accepted him into his life before? Maybe they'd be safe... or maybe they'd both have been dead from the start. _What mattered at that moment?_

"...is it anythin' I've done?"

"What?" That question made Dwight instantly stop thinking. Had he been blaming himself for him not managing to get him to open up?

" 'ave I ever 'urt ye in some way? I... sometimes don't realize that I might be sayin' somethin' that I shouldn't, I-"

"No, it's not that, you were fine David. You  _are_ fine."

For how long had he been feeling that way? They had known each other for over a year, spending lots of time together, getting closer and closer before Dwight moved away from him all over again. It made him realize why David sometimes got upset or a bit angry, he didn't know what was going on because he  _really_ wasn't doing anything wrong, actually he was doing all of the right things. But it scared him.

"But then ye decide to kiss me at Walmart," he whispered, a thumb brushing up Dwight's chin to his lips to carefully press it against them, parting and observing them. David rubbed his thumb to the corner of his lips, cupping his cheek as he stepped closer to him to make him walk backwards, his back colliding against the wall behind. Pressing his chest against the smaller male's, he lowered his head, close enough to close the gap between their lips for a second kiss, but instead stayed still, quiet, feeling his warm breath against him. _"...why?"_

Dwight felt almost breathless, breathing through his mouth instead of his nose and feeling his heartbeat on his neck; a tingling feeling lowering from his chest to his stomach. His hands on David's waist were fighting against the need to sneak underneath his shirt, needing to touch his skin. As much as he wanted to avoid the question and go ahead to kiss him again, he wouldn't. He hadn't after such a long time and he wouldn't ruin it like that now. However, David had decided to continue, pecking a kiss on the corner of his lips and trailing his cheek with more until he reached the side of his neck, pecking a last one there to rest his lips against the spot underneath his ear.

The feeling on Dwight's stomach was moving even lower, his scarce arm hair standing on end. He couldn't help letting out a louder, shaky breath; thankful that David was decent enough to stop there since he hadn't really got any reactions from him that asked for him to continue.

"...we still have that talking to do," he whispered.

"Then lets get goin' and finish cleanin' the place up, a'ight?"

"Alright."


	10. What matters right now? (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's some talking to be done. Posting in 2 parts because it was beginning to get long! Possible NSFW on the next chapter.

What mattered at that moment?

To the ones that got along with their families, that was the answer. They had been trying to get in contact with each other until they finally managed to get someone to pick the phone up, spending a long time talking together until they had said all they needed to say before painfully hanging up.

"Yes, they're okay," Claudette said as Quentin walked towards her. "They locked themselves at home and they're waiting to know what to do. What about yours?"

"They're alright too. So it's not happening only here..."

"Apparently not. Canada is also affected."

At least there were some good news. Both of their families seemed to be fine, and they had had more than enough time to talk together and give each other their last good byes. They had also agreed on keeping in contact a bare minimum, only sending a message a day to make sure they'd be fine. Sooner or later, power would go off if things didn't go back to normal and they were pretty sure that they wouldn't be taking care of keeping electricity going unless they could be protected.

Once he was close enough, Quentin wrapped his arms around her and pecked a kiss on the top of her head. Leaning against him and sighing, she hugged him back and sighed through her nose.

"...so what are we going to do with these two?" she asked.

"...Nea and Ace, right?"

"Yeah."

"They seem to be fine." Quentin knew he'd told them they could stay for a bit, but maybe staying together was the smart choice, even if eating would be harder. "The more we are... the more protected we will be, right?"

"Yeah. I just wish... I wish it could be _them_ instead."

"I know... I wish it too."

Claudette looked at her phone, still on her hands, as she scrolled up the messages. If Quentin hadn't convinced her to stop trying to contact them she'd be glued to it, continuing to send desperate messages to catch their attention -but what if they were hiding and she got them in trouble? That had been all she'd needed to hear to stop trying.

Sighing, she quickly rubbed up the screen with her thumb to go back to the last message but it wasn't the one she was expecting.

[Dwight]: there really was a door in the toilets

Thankfully Quentin had quick reflexes because before Claudette could scream in delight for his attention he had his hand against her mouth, muffling the noises. It made her realize she shouldn't be loud so she waited for a few moments before putting her hand over her friend's and moving it away from herself. It was a miracle, they were still alive! It made her feel bad that she'd doubted them, but it wasn't really something to worry about. This time there was no hesitation: she called him as fast as she could.

* * *

So, what mattered the most to the ones that weren't so close to their families?

A simple answer. Unless they were too worried about their priced beings, the answer was their friends. Dwight had been wanting to call them, but there was something he should worry about the first, or rather _someone_ , that had just finished cleaning the blood on the floor around the bed and was wiping his hands on a clean part of the bedsheets they were getting rid of.

"Good thing the bed had covers, right? We're gonna 'ave a nice place to sleep in tonight."

David let out a pleased hum to the rhythm of the soft music playing in the house, grabbing the bloody covers and bedsheets to throw them out of the window just like they had done before with the corpses. They were going to die in such an unrealistic way that they couldn't really comprehend it, somehow making it easier on them. It felt like... one big joke. One they had had a small talk about while they were cleaning and had decided to keep themselves busy enough not to think about anything at all. Wasn't it the best thing to die early, though? They wouldn't have any problems the rest of them would have if nothing got fixed. Everything about survival and relationships wouldn't trouble them, disappearing while there was still power, water and things to get entertained with. It even sounded _desirable_ to die early.

"It's rainin'," the bigger man commented as he opened the window to throw out the bloody things. "Well, uh... we 'ave cleaned the house. Might as well clean ourselves too, 'ell, ye smell awful," he snorted, Dwight looking at him with a fake glare.

"Says the one that's covered in blood... and bits of things that I prefer to not know what they are!"

"Oh ye mingin' ass'ole," he snorted, approaching Dwight fast to trap him there with a tight hold on his shoulders, pecking a kiss on his cheek as he slid his hands down his arms. "If ye don't mind, I'll go in first. I'm fast, just grab yer things and I'll be out in five minutes."

Dwight was left there smiling, not moving until David left the room and threw his shirt on his head from the distance so he wouldn't just stand in there. A chance like this was one he wasn't going to let go to waste, so he walked to the closet and looked through it to grab comfortable things to wear -poor David, if he hadn't grabbed anything from the shop he was going to have to wear things that would be too tight on him- and turned the heat of the house on.

In the bathroom, David had been waiting for the water to become warm before stepping in the bathtub, getting directly underneath it and wiping his face and hair from such a mess; feeling soft bits splatting down but pushing them down the drain without looking. He knew what those were, but he preferred to pretend he didn't.

He heard Dwight walking in the bathroom, not being something he minded he peeked through the curtains and watched him bringing towels, clothes and the phone they were playing music with in.

"Almost done, gimme a sec," David said, about to reach for the soap in front of him when he felt Dwight opening the curtains behind him. The smaller man was stepping inside to join him, so David turned around and looked at him up and down. He saw how the wounds on his forearms and bridge on the nose were clotted and a nasty bruise on his shoulder from that bite that didn't go through his clothes. It made him wince, but at least he still had a full shoulder. Not only that, but how adorable he found his body to be. Manly but without the need of toned muscles to show off, minimum curves but enough to hold him by his waist. He knew Dwight seemed to have a bit of a problem growing facial or body hair, but it was the perfect amount not to look like he waxed. They were very different, but it was one of his favourite things about themselves.

Dwight hated how he couldn't wear his glasses to the shower -the only way for them not to be foggy was for them to be wet, but drops of water would be making it hard for him to see either way. Because of that, he'd decided to clean them and leave them on the sink before getting in.

"...I hope it's okay that I join you," Dwight said, softly, somewhat embarrassed because even if people of the same sex were usually okay with being naked in the same place, it was something more _intimate_ and not just a necessity.

"Are ye kiddin'? Would 'ave suggested it myself, but I wasn't sure of 'ow ye were gonna react," David smiled, taking his hands to guide him underneath the water.

A bathtub wasn't really a place where he could get lost but he was used to holding him one way or another whenever he didn't have his glasses on. Dwight didn’t just move underneath the water: he let go of David's hands and wrapped his arms around his waist, the scrapper surprised about how close he was getting.

He felt Dwight sinking his face into his chest, nuzzling it lovingly, needy for his attention; and that was something David would never reject giving him.

”Yer missing the show,” David grinned, always proud of his body. He trained hard for it and maybe he liked showing off a bit ýmuch, but at least this time he was just saying these things to keep both of their minds free of thoughts.

”You know, there’s other ways in which a man on his way to be considered legally blind can enjoy things too,” he snorted, letting him go from the embrace to press his hands against his midriff. Feeling him on his way up until he reached his chest, Dwight gently squeezed his pecs, which made the other man let out an amused sigh through his nose and flex to see his reaction.

The delivery guy -did he even have a job anymore?- widened his eyes, squeezing a bit harder and brushing his hands up to push his frustration away. His hands now on his shoulders, he wrapped his arms around his neck as David did the same on his waist amd pressed him against him; leaning down a bit to rest their foreheads together. Dwight had to hold his breath for a few seconds to remain as calm as he could and being able to completely feel him wasn’t helping.

”What about a nice warm bath?” David asked, trying to settle for something more relaxing.

”Sounds good to me.”

  


* * *

  


“Claudette, your phone is ringing!”

It didn’t matter knowing who it was -whoever thought of her at that moment was most likely someone important in her life-, she rushed to grab the phone and answered the call without checking in fear of them hanging up. 

_“Hello? Who is it?”_ she asked, talking so fast that she almost tripped on her words. The voice she least expected to hear was at the other side.

“Hey Clau--”

”QUENTIN! IT’S DWIGHT!” she interrupted, getting a hold of his jacket and pulling him closer, wanting him to put his ear against the phone too. Quentin was happy about it, but he was a bit more efficient so he gently pulled her hand down and set her phone on hands-free mode. From the other side, they could hear a soft chuckle from David.

“And David is there too! You’re both alive!”

“Yeah, we’re safe,” Dwight replied. They could hear a sigh from his side of the call. “We found some people to stay with and we’re all in a building, it seems to be safe for now.”

Claudette leaned against Quentin, who put his hands on her shoulders to rub them. It was strange -they’d been wanting to hear from him for a long time and now they didn’t know what to say at all. What was even the appropriate thing to say? _’Hey, I’m glad you’re alive, I’m sorry that you’re going to die soon like the others who got attacked?’_ Definitely not.

“...I know this is strange,” Dwight spoke up again. “I mean… this is technically not a bite.”

She took a deep breath, then let the air out somewhat shaky. It was easy to know what he was doing, but she knew he was just trying to make it easier on all of them.

“‘ey that’s right! Just a scratch, the other ones we saw becomin’ a monster did it straight away!” He had a point. Then again, the rest of those had been murdered instantly and they knew it well.

Everyone made a small noise of fake agreement, even David himself, but when Claudette was about to reply Nea rushed into the room.

“Someone parked their car right at the door and is asking for you,” she said, looking at the other woman. “He says his name is Jeff.”

“Jeff? Wait, he made all the way here?” Quentin seemed to be surprised about it. “I mean, he lives like 10 minutes away by car at least, what is he even doing here?”

Nea shrugged, then pat the door a couple times. “Well I don’t know about you but he’s got a pickup truck and a shotgun so I’m leaving with him.”

They could hear Ace yelling in Spanish at the other room, not being able to pay attention to him because they couldn’t speak that language. All he wanted was for them to rush, a shitty house like that wouldn't be able to stop anyone from breaking the door or walls and getting inside to harm them.

“Where is he taking us?”

“Apparently he wants to get out of the city, it should be calmer out there.”

“You should go,” Dwight spoke up. “It’ll be safer than staying at home and waiting for those things to break into it, and you don’t have a gun!”

“Yeah, ye should all go, with whoever that woman is. She sounded well smart before,” he said. “And take care of Quentin, he looks like a wimpy cock!”

“I’m still here, David,” Quentin rolled his eyes, but he knew he was just joking.

“Why would I say that to yer back?”

David’s loud laughter was contagious, making Dwight laugh too. It made the others feel somewhat better, knowing that they seemed to be alright was a relief.

Claudette looked at the phone, quietly reading Dwight’s name on it. She was awful at goodbyes and things were more awkward when they were _this_ way. Thankfully for her, she had friends that knew her well enough to make things less awkward, even if it was by lying and they all knew it... but no one wanted to hear the truth.

"So... lets not waste batteries. Just in case we should just use our phones strictly for necessary moments," Dwight said, getting a hum of approval from David. "I... well, if it's safe enough around here later and we can meet up in some way I'll message you."

"Alright, we'll check the phone when we're safe. I love you, man, take care," Quentin said, wrapping his arm around Claudette's shoulders since he could see how she was about to begin crying again.

"Love you too, of course. Right, David?"

"Yeah, yeah, kisses for everyone," he said in a joking annoyed tone. He wasn't really a guy to say these things, but he wasn't going to leave Dwight hanging.

"And you too, Claudette. Remember not to put too much weight on your shoulders, okay?" He knew what she was thinking. Since he saw those messages at the bathroom, he knew that she was blaming herself for everything. "You need to take care of Quentin, David was right. You're wimpy!"

At least it got her to smile a bit, nodding and remaining quiet.

"So... I'll hang up now. See you soon," and with that said, he ended the call. No need for an unnecessarily long uncomfortable silence.

"Claudette, pack some of your stuff up fast so we can leave with Jeff," Quentin said, putting Claudette's phone in her pocket before moving away to get his things.

"I'll go get food, will wait for you at the entrance!" Nea was actually pretty useful, she knew what one of the priorities was. She had to survive too after all, hopefully the police -or even the military- would do something about this fast enough before things became even more chaotic if it was possible.

Once they packed their things, they all rushed to the entrance of the house, Ace having left the front door opened and calmly leaning against the car talking to Jeff, who was trying to get him to go inside the car, but the older man didn't seem to be too worried about it. "Move it!" Nea said as she almost ran over him, pushing him aside to open the door of the car and throw luggage in. Once Claudette got outside, Jeff and her stared at each other for a couple seconds; Claudette lowering her gaze and getting in the car on the backseat with Quentin and Nea while Ace sat next to Jeff.

"Ready to go?" Jeff said, calmly, keeping his voice low.

"¡Aprisa, gordito!"


End file.
